


Rebuild

by MalisonQuill



Series: Rex Brickowski AU [1]
Category: The LEGO Movie (2014), The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Drogerphobia, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, If they don't make a third one you can't say this doesn't happen xD, Like SERIOUSLY the angst went more angstier than I expected, Mild Language, Minor Violence, PTSD/ Emotional Trauma, Redemption, Rex has some serious issues to work out in this, canon continuance, kind of, lego movie 2 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-06-28 18:38:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19818196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalisonQuill/pseuds/MalisonQuill
Summary: Instead of being erased from existence, Rex finds himself not only alive, but back in his original timeline.Alone, without a plan to drive him on, a changed perspective on everything, and faced with his old friends who never came back for him, Rex must decide what to do with the second chance at life he'd been given.What would he do? Who even was he anymore? Could he really be something other than a bad guy?And does he have it in him to learn to trust his friends again?





	1. Rexile

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the start of this AU that has quickly consumed me since I first watched The Lego Movie 2, 3 (ish) weeks ago! Inspiration struck me, and I've somehow written out this entire fic that I will be posting a chapter for every day this week until it's complete. 
> 
> There will be a lot of angst in this, which is mostly why I decided to give this a Teen rating. Heavy psychological issues will be tackled, but it's needed for Rex's 'Rexdemption'. But don't worry! Cause they'll be plenty of fluff and humour sprinkled throughout to make things balanced. 
> 
> Other than that, the only things I have left to say are I did take some liberties and anthropomorphise the characters a bit, the biggest thing being they have proper hands, and that I hope you stick around and enjoy my story!
> 
> With that being said, let's begin...

Rex knew this was it. 

He knew that he was being erased from existence. He could feel a fuzzy static feeling in his limbs that buzzed right down to his core, and that grew stronger and stronger with each passing moment. He supposed he should be grateful. At least it didn’t hurt like he was sure it would. Maybe, in a strange way, it was even peaceful. His body was letting its grip on reality go bit by bit. His limbs were so heavy, yet somehow so light with static as they faded. 

At least this was a really rad way for his existence to end. At least he could take some small comfort in the fact that, if nothing else, he had spared Emmet, and in a way himself, from years of loneliness and torment. At least he could enjoy a few brief moments where he had hope and happiness in his heart again, knowing that in at least in one reality, his friends came back to save him. 

And he was proud. For the first time in years he was proud of Emmet, of his past self. For so long he had looked down on who he was as Emmet as some weak, naive, _pathetic_ shell of a man that deserved to no longer exist. But in the end he was wrong. So, _so, wrong_ . Because Emmet had proved he was stronger than Rex in a way he could never hope to be; _Emmet hadn’t given up on his friends_. Granted, he hadn’t spent nearly as long on Undar as Rex had, but still… He hadn’t given up and his friends found him. Maybe if Rex had been stronger, waited just a little longer they might have come for him too. 

But there was no way he would know now. He was fading after all. Being ‘ _Back To The Futured_ ’. Rex would soon be gone from the world, and it was honestly probably better off without him. 

Finally, there was only part of him left. With his last breath he spouted off one last catchphrase.

...

And then he was gone. 

…

Or so he thought.

Darkness and nothingness engulfed him. There was nothing for him to perceive. No limbs he could feel, no weight to his form, or even a form at all for that matter. He was sure that whatever this was, it must have only been the last dregs of his mind desperately clinging onto existence before he was finally gone for good. So what happened next was utterly unanticipated. 

The fuzzy feeling returned. He felt it in his face, then his chest, then his arms, then hands, until the tingly static buzzed through him with fierce energy. Then the darkness slowly receded and he felt heavier again, like gravity was acting on him once more. He could feel something beneath him, something soft and dense. He looked down and saw his black and white void leak away and reveal dusty beige sand underneath him and a bright blue sky above him. His whole body felt heavier than it ever had in his whole life as the static feeling of his limbs finally faded. He was left standing alone in the middle of a desert, confused, but _alive_ . He was _existing_. 

But that had to be impossible! Hadn’t it? 

The past was changed! Emmet, his past self, was never stuck for years on Undar. He was rescued! That meant that he’d never become Rex, so Rex shouldn’t exist! Unless, maybe he wasn’t still Rex?

He looked down at himself, saw he still had his dark blue vest and jeans, he still had his bright green ‘R’ emblem on his chest, and by dragging a hand down his head and face he felt his messy dark locks and scratchy face stubble. So somehow, against all logic and reason, he was still Rex and he was still alive. 

But how the hell did that happen?

This couldn’t possibly be real, could it? This had to be some kind of trick. Or maybe he was stuck in purgatory. Or maybe even _hell_. Desolate isolation seemed like something he’d deal with in his own personal hell, and this vast empty desert spanned as far as he could see, so it was possible this was his own private personal damnation. But he’d had too many sleepless nights on the Rexcelsior caused by horrific nightmare recreations of his time on Undar to believe that hell would be anything less than that for him. So assuming he wasn’t dead, what did that leave?

He looked down at the warm, mid-day sand as he thought about it. He supposed it could be… 

_“Wait a minute.”_ He thought. 

Looking up at the sun confirmed his suspicion. It was definitely morning. Mid-morning in the middle of a desert. But the last he knew it had been evening on Undar, so he definitely wasn’t still there. So where, or perhaps _when,_ was he? 

He’d been on a lot of different planets. Explored the unknown of space. A lot of places had deserts, so that didn’t exactly help narrow it down. He decided the only way he could find out if he was anywhere or any _when_ he knew would be to go explore. So like any tough explorer, he picked a direction and started walking like he knew it was the right way. He was sure to pace himself. Alone in a desert with no provisions, no shelter, and no idea where to go was a dangerous mix. But he was a tough adventurer who had beaten the odds before, he could survive anything if he put his mind to it. And so he walked on, ready to spend hours or days wandering aimlessly in a harsh, unforgiving, mysterious land with nothing but his wits to aid him. 

But as it turned out, he only needed to walk about 20 minutes before he came across some kind of civilisation. He skidded down a sand dune and came to a stop about a mile or so away from a city. But it wasn’t just any city. He recognised this place. Maybe he hadn’t seen it from this angle before, but he spent so long looking at it, he’d recognise it anywhere. This was _his_ Apocalypseburg. Or more accurately now, his ‘Syspocalypstar’. It looked almost the same as it did when he’d left his original timeline in the Rexcelsior. 

Could that be where he was? 

Had he been sent back to his original timeline all the way before he’d started time traveling? 

It had to be. If he hadn’t been erased from existence, then this was to only place it made sense to send him back to. Back where he had originally come from. 

Which meant that his past self, the other version of Emmet that he’d tried to make into himself wasn’t going to be here. He hoped that Emmet still existed. No, he was sure that Emmet still existed. If anyone shouldn’t still be in existence then it’d be him, and as he was still alive, that meant the Emmet he’d met was still out there. Probably off living happily with all his friends in an alternate timeline.

His friends…

Rex sat down as he thought about everything, staring off into the distance at the bustling city.

His original friends, the ones who never came back for him, were still here. They were probably out there in that city right now. Whilst he sat here, alone, in the sand. He had no plan, no Rexcelsior, no legion of rad velociraptor buddies… He had nothing. What was he even supposed to do with his life anymore? It wasn’t like he could try to cause Armamageddon again. For one thing, it probably wouldn’t work now, and more importantly he didn’t want to. 

He had been wrong to try and enact it in the first place. His friends did come back for him in the other timeline, they saved their Emmet. But they didn’t come back for him here. Why? Why didn’t they save _him?_

To be fair, he was stuck in another realm and on a remote planet that was almost impossible to find. But even so, they still gave up on him. They forgot about him, they **_abandoned_ ** him to go off and have fun with the damn _Systarians_ . If things were the other way around, if one or more of them had gone missing, Emmet wouldn’t have given up on them. He would have searched, and searched and _searched_. He would never have stopped looking until he found his friend. No matter what, no matter the obstacles he would never have given up on his friend. 

Except… he _had been_ Emmet. And after months and months of waiting motionless and alone on Undar, Emmet _had_ given up on his friends. He’d given up on them ever finding him. He’d lost all hope in them. Maybe if he’d held out a little longer, they might have found him... 

No, they probably wouldn’t have found him. Not where he was. In hindsight it was unfair to be so mad at them for so long. Would he have ever thought to look in the realm of the Man Upstairs? 

Yes, of course! 

Maybe...? 

No.

No he wouldn’t have. 

So why did he blame them so much for not thinking of it? Maybe it was because he was on the receiving end of injustice. He was the one who suffered whilst they thrived. He was the one who was paralysed and alone whilst they were free, happy and together. 

A deep knot of rage awoke from its slumber and churned inside his heart once more. It never stayed dormant for long. Time and time again during his exile the rage inside him would come back with full force. It fuelled him. It drove him to never stop trying to make his plan come to fruition. Except now he had no plan. He had no want to cause the end of the world. 

So the question was: did any of it matter anymore? Should he really hang onto that hate and anger? What good would it do to hold onto past grudges when he could restart with a clean slate? He had a second chance at life. He could do anything now. Maybe he could even have it in him to forgive his friends and try to trust them again. At least, given time. But what to do with that second chance of life? He’d spent years toughening himself up, becoming cool and mature, acting out his grand plan to travel back in time and bring about Armamageddon. That had been his life, all that mattered. But he didn’t have that anymore. He didn’t have _anything_ anymore. No ship. No legion of raptor buddies. Nothing. Just himself. 

But that presented another problem. 

He didn’t know who he even _was_ anymore. He had no idea who he even _wanted_ to be anymore. 

As Rex Dangervest, he had tried to destroy the universe and end all existence in his reality. He’d been so consumed by hate, revenge and a need for maturity that he’d failed to see how joining with the Systarians could actually be a good thing. He’d thought that to truly embrace being grown up and mature, he had to get rid of their very reality. How wrong he had been. The devastation he could have caused had his plans worked out... 

He didn’t want to be a man like that anymore. Rex Dangervest went too far. He was a _bad guy_. 

That one thought reminded him of what Lucy and Emmet said right before he “ _Back to the Futured_ ”. And what he himself had said long ago to Lord Business. 

_He didn’t have to be the bad guy_. 

He could figure out how to be a good guy again. He could be happier again. He could trust again. 

…

But he couldn’t be Emmet again. 

For too long he had viewed how he was as Emmet to be too soft, too naive, too weak. And whilst he had changed his opinion about that, he had still changed too much, he was far too jaded now to return to being that happy-go-lucky kid with a smile always plastered on his face. 

So what did that leave? He couldn’t be _just_ Rex or _just_ Emmet anymore. So who could he be?

“Hey there stranger!”

“AH! WHAT THE F-!”

Rex fell back and snapped his head towards the voice. There, just a few meters away from where he sat, driving a large Mad-Max looking truck, was Mrs Scratchen-Post. One of her cats jumped up from her lap to look at him out of the truck’s window. He immediately recognised that that particular cat was Scarfield, and he wasn’t sure whether he liked the fact he could still differentiate each of Mrs Scratchen-Post’s cats after all this time.

She looked down at him, somewhat confused by this peculiar stranger. 

“What are you doing sitting out here in the middle of nowhere?” She asked. 

Rex just dumbfoundedly stared at her for a moment, utterly confused by how a truck that big could sneak up on him without him noticing it. He must have been brooding pretty hard to be that oblivious. 

“Um… Just- Thinking… I guess.”

Another cat, Jeff, jumped up on her shoulder and tilted his head curiously at Rex. 

“Well are you gonna keep sitting there thinking? Or would you like a ride into town?”

Recovering from his confusion, and thinking that anything other than sitting alone in a desert might do him some good, Rex stood up and wiped sand off his trousers. He was about to accept her offer, when he noticed a number of loose bricks poking out the top of her trailer. That gave him an idea. 

“You got a lot of bricks in that trailer back there. Could I have some?”

She smiled at him and nodded reassuringly. 

“Sure, I got plenty. Take what you want.” 

Rex gave her a quick smile and a nod and hopped up into the trailer, quickly scanning it for the pieces he needed. His old skills as a master builder made it easy to construct what he wanted, even if he had gotten more used to breaking things in recent years. 

Piece by piece with practised speed he placed one block after another. Blacks and dark blues combined with silver accents, two big black tires with deep treads were placed at opposite ends until finally what he wanted was built. Rex stood before a large motorcycle that had two massive exhausts coming out the sides and following the curvature of the back wheel. The front came to an aggressive point with silver flames crafted into it and trailing down the sides. Rex sat in the saddle and revved the motorcycle, breathing life into it as it roared and flames spat out the exhausts. He looked over to Mrs Scratchen-Post, who admired his bike’s design, and gave her a smile and salute.

“Thanks Ma’am!” He shouted, before revving his engine loudly and squealing his tires as he took off with a wheelie across the desert. 

This was it. He was headed to Syspocalypstar. Headed towards his old friends. With no idea what he would do once he got there, what he would say if he saw them, or who he was even going to be. 

What could possibly go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Things are gonna get going real quick in this and the chapters are gonna get longer, so I'll see all you tomorrow at 3pm (BST) for Chapter 2: Shattered.
> 
> EDIT: This chapter now has art by my wonderful friend cutzy-sushi who you can find on Tumblr along with this great piece of art!!! :>  
> https://cutzy-sushi.tumblr.com/post/187719195927


	2. Shattered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rex spends a day in Syspocalypstar. But is he ready to see the familiar faces waiting for him there?
> 
> Also side note, for some reason AO3 spaces things out a lot more than the program I write on so, sorry for how much space there is between everything.

Rex tore through the streets of Syspocalypstar on his motorcycle. His engine roared as he weaved through traffic, expertly dodging anything in his way. The mix of Systarian and former Apocalypseburg citizens stopped and stared as he flew by. He couldn’t help but smile seeing that. He’d never been here as Rex before. It felt amazing to be seen as tough by all those people who had berated him for staying sweet as Emmet. He wheelied down the street and pulled up to a red light, letting the front of his bike pop down with a thud. 

“Hey man, cool bike.” 

Rex looked to his right and saw Chainsaw Dave stop waxing one of his surfboards to admire his motorcycle. Rex smiled and made sure to keep his voice as rough as he could. Not that it was hard to do. After all, it had become his default tone long ago.

“Thanks pal.” 

Chainsaw Dave nodded and continued with his waxing. The light turned green, and Rex revved off again. He just went wherever he felt like at each turn, not really aiming to go anywhere in particular. Maybe it would have been smart to pull over and make a plan of action. But the feeling of freedom he felt from riding around on his motorcycle without the weight of his problems on his shoulders was just what he needed. Obviously he’d have to stop sooner or later, but right now he just enjoyed the ride. 

  


Elsewhere, it was just a pretty average day in Syspocalypstar for Lucy, Benny, Unikitty, Metalbeard and Batman. They’d decided to go to the park to hang out. Mostly they were just wandering around, talking about things they had/ were planning to build and generally enjoying each other’s company. 

They were just about to head elsewhere in the town when they heard a particularly loud roar of an engine getting closer to them. They looked to where it was coming from, only to look up in confusion as the sound suddenly started coming from above them. 

Rex had seen a pile of convenient blocks that just happened to make a great ramp, and decided to use them to launch himself over a building. He flew higher and higher into the sky, grabbing onto his bike’s handlebars and using his momentum to flip himself and his bike 360 degrees through the air. As the wind whipped through his hair, he couldn’t help but genuinely smile at all the fun he was having. 

But as he glanced to his right, what he saw made his smile fall. 

They were there, Benny, Metalbeard, Unikitty, Batman… Lucy, all of them. And they were all staring at him in awe. 

He righted the bike and landed with a hard thud, steering tightly and breaking hard as he skidded around the others and came to a stop. Benny and Unikitty cheered and clapped at him as the others looked at him with impressed smiles. His heart was pounding with terror, but he managed to hide it with only a mildly surprised look on his face. 

He had no idea what to do. He was **_so_** not ready for this. What was he supposed to say? How should he introduce himself? Did they even recognise him? Did he _want_ them to recognise him? A million terrified thoughts buzzed through his head, until he was interrupted by Unikitty bouncing right over to him and getting up in his face. 

“Wow! That was really cool! What’s your name?”

He blinked at her, dumbfounded. She… didn’t know who he was? Well… he supposed that was a good thing. It meant he might not have to tell them who he was straight away and deal with all the damage that truth bomb would do. He wasn’t sure he could handle all of that quite yet. So he bolstered himself up and put on his best tough guy smile and rough, tough voice.

“Heh-heh. The name’s _Rex_. Rex Dangervest.”

He hopped off his bike and made sure to keep looking as calm and tough as he could on the outside. 

_“Fake it till you make it Rex.”_ He told himself.

Benny floated over and buzzed around him.

“So Rex, how come we’ve never seen you around before? You from the Systar System or something?” 

Rex couldn’t hold back a bark of laughter at such a ridiculous question.

“HA-HA! NOPE! I’m from- uh.” 

Oh wait, he couldn’t tell them he was from Apocalypseburg. They would surely be suspicious about never noticing him before, and that could lead to questions that he didn’t want to answer.

“Well, you see- I’m a galaxy defending, raptor training, archaeologist, cowboy. So, I just came here from space. Yeah, I thought I’d come look around and see what was going on here.”

He gave a sassy, toothy grin and finger guns, which made Batman and Lucy roll their eyes. But when Lucy looked back at him, he could see something in her eyes, something that shot a pang of worry though his gut. She looked at him curiously, like she could partially see through his act and see something familiar inside him. 

“Well if you’re new here we could give you a tour of the city! We were just about to go get some drinks anyway. What do you say?”

He looked down at Unikitty beaming up at him, her wide enthusiastic smile warming his heart enough that he just couldn’t say no.

“Yeah sure, I’d love a tour. Not got much else to do anyway.”

She jumped up on the spot a shot a few sparkles from her horn.

“Yaaaaay! Come on everyone! Let’s go get some sweet treats from the coffee shop!”

Rex followed behind her as the group made their way out of the park. Metalbeard leaned over his shoulder to talk to him.

“Say, Rex, was it? Ye sure ya want ta leave yer land-cycle here?”

“Eh! It’ll be fine! I’ll come back for it later. It’s no biggie.” 

Metalbeard shrugged and stood back up to his full height. 

“Fair enough then.”

For some reason Metalbeard backing away from his personal space made the tension in Rex’s shoulders (that he hadn’t even realised were tense) relax. But even so, there was still a lingering worry clinging to his mind. He was surrounded by his ‘friends’. Maybe he was still too hurt to completely trust them again, but he knew they wouldn’t physically hurt him or anything. So why did he feel so scared? So trapped between them? It didn’t make sense. 

“Here we aaaaarrrrrreeeee!!!! The coffee shop! Wyldstyle, Rex- could you help me get the drinks for everyone?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure.”

Rex followed Unikitty to the door, and found himself holding it open for her and Lucy. She glanced a smile at Rex as she and Unikitty made their way inside, and it took all of his willpower not to visibly blush as his heart fluttered at her acknowledgement. He followed and waited behind them in line, looking around the inside of Coffee Unchained. It was so different to the last time he’d been in here. The drab, washed out wasteland colour scheme was almost gone. Replaced by brighter blues and purples with black detailing and a hodgepodge of grim and cutesy decorations on the walls. It was rather unsettling seeing this place he’d visited every single day look so alien to him. So… Systarian. 

Which made it a nice surprise to see that good old, grumpy Larry the Barista looked the same as he’d always done. He guessed that no amount of brightly coloured Systarian influence could completely change the outlook of a rushed off his feet service worker.

Unikitty of course greeted him with her usual optimism. 

“Hi there! Can we get a super sparkly sundae milkshake with extra whipped cream, a Caribbean tea with two sugars, a chocolate space blast frappe, two black coffees aaaannnnnndddd- uh, Rex, what did you want?”

Every other time he’d been in here, he’d always ordered a coffee with a touch of cream and 25 sugars for himself. But he’d long since stopped drinking that (no matter how much he’d missed it) once he put himself on a less sugar laden diet to accompany his rigorous workout routine. Instead, he ordered a more grown up drink that he ~~barely tolerated~~ had grown to _love_.

“I’ll have a coffee, black.” 

“And another black coffee please!”

Larry grunted in acknowledgement and he turned around and got to work. Unikitty hummed a little song that only she seemed to know as they waited. The silence between him and Lucy however started to make him agitated. 

“So Lu- UH! Wyldstyle!”

Oh _shit._ He’d nearly said her real name. Luckily he was able to correct himself quickly and recover _super_ smoothly. 

“What dooooo you like to do for fun?”

She looked at him as if nothing was out of the ordinary, but he’d spent 5 years with her, long enough for him to be able to pick up the slight suspicious squint in her eyes. She’d noticed his slip up. But maybe if he was lucky she’d play along and pretend she hadn’t. 

“Well I like building, brooding in high places, and more recently I’ve gotten into singing karaoke with my friends.”

The first two he’d already known, but that last one truly came as a surprise to him. 

“Really? I didn’t peg you as the singing type.”

“Yeah well, I wasn’t for quite a while. But I sang a bit at the Queen’s wedding party and I thought it might be fun to get into it again. I thought I didn’t miss it, but it turns out I really did.”

She looked away from him, mindlessly watching Larry making their drinks. But Rex could do nothing but stare at her longingly. 

“I… I know exactly what you mean.” 

She was about to turn back and ask him what he meant, but Larry putting down the three black coffees and the one tea distracted them both. 

“You guys take those out, I’ll be with you in a minute!” Unikitty cheerfully said.

Rex and Lucy glanced at each other, before each picking up two drinks and walking out the coffee shop. Lucy smiled and handed off the tea to Metalbeard and the coffee to Batman. She then looked expectantly at Rex, who paused for a moment before handing her one of the coffees in his hand. Her gloved hand briefly brushed against his as she grabbed the cup and smiled at him in thanks. Outwardly he didn’t react, but inwardly his heart skipped a beat. He _really_ wished it would stop doing that. It was so inconvenient.

A few moments later Unikitty came trotting out the shop happily with hers and Benny’s drinks. She handed his to him and the group continued off down the street. Skipping along, she led the way and babbled on about what shops were where, which ones had the sparkliest stuff and such other things.

“And here’s main street! We got the furniture store, the book store, the candy store, the video game store, the laundromat, the TV store, the…”

Rex froze as they passed the laundromat. Unikitty’s voice carried on, but he couldn’t hear it anymore. Through the window he could see over a dozen washers and dryers working away. From where he was, he shouldn’t have been able to hear them, but slowly he noticed a rumbling, whirring sound grow louder. His grip on his coffee cup tightened, denting it noticeably. He wanted to move, but he found himself routed in place. 

“Hey. What are you looking at?” Batman stood close to him and looked in the same direction as Rex, trying to figure out what was so interesting. 

Rex jumped back with a start and crushed his coffee cup in his hands, spraying the coffee that was left in his cup all over himself. 

“Whoa. You ok?” 

Rex looked down at himself. He wiped the leftover coffee off his vest and trousers as best he could.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah I’m ok, just got distracted.” 

Batman quizzically looked between Rex and the laundromat.

“You really like laundry or something?”

“NO!”

The others all looked at him very confused. All those pairs of his old friends eyes on him unnerved him. 

“Uhhh… Never mind. How about we move on?” 

“Ooooookay.”

Well that certainly hadn’t been a smooth recovery. He really needed to be more careful around them before he mistakenly let anything slip. He was also sure to make a mental note to avoid that laundromat at all costs. Although for a brief moment he did worry about how he was going to clean his clothes without any raptors to do laundry for him. Maybe he could just buy entirely new clothes every few days? That totally seemed easier than dealing with a laundromat once or twice a week. 

  


But eventually the awkward laundromat incident was forgotten, and Rex and the others fell into pleasant conversation again. They ended up talking about a lot of different things, from space travel, to fighting techniques, to music. They all had varying tastes, but Rex found there was some overlap. Rex and Benny both liked 80’s synth pop, he and Batman compared favourite rock metal artists, and both he and Lucy were loathed to admit they had a soft spot for ‘Everything is Awesome’. Rex was quite surprised at that, especially given how much he’d remembered Lucy expressing her hatred for it. Though come to think of it, she _had_ known the words to it back when they’d infiltrated Lord Business’ tower… Just _what_ was her deal with that song anyway?

  


Their wandering brought them to a large concourse area outside of the newly built Syspocalypstar city hall.

As they neared the center of it, Rex spotted something that made him stop in his tracks. His breathing stopped, his body tensed, and he breathlessly blurted out what he was thinking in a softer voice than usual. 

“What… is that...?”

Lucy saw what he was looking at and immediately her spirits sank.

“That… That’s a statue to honour The Special, our good friend Emmet.”

Rex stared at the statue in quiet awe. It looked exactly like he used to, except it was holding the piece of resistance up triumphantly and was made of polished bronze with silver accents on his safety vest strips. 

“What happened to him?” He asked. Seeing his old self immortalised like this had really thrown him, but it provided him a good opportunity to hear their side of things. To see how much they knew and judge if he really had been a lost cause. 

“Tis a sad story, it is.” Metalbeard replied sombrely. 

“Everyone thought General Mayhem had abducted us and that we were in danger.” Unikitty said as she joined them.

“Emmet was left behind, but apparently he built a ship and tried to come and save us.” Benny chimed in.

“Luckily the Systarians turned out not to be a threat. So after Batman and The Queen’s wedding we all came back here to unite our two worlds. But Emmet…” Unikitty added, her sadness making her unable to finish. 

“He was… gone.” Lucy sorrowfully finished. 

“He never made it to the Systar System.” Metalbeard said, unusually emotional. 

Batman continued, providing logical exposition. 

“We figured that he must have been lost or had something happen to him somewhere along the way. The Queen sent out scouts to search the Systar System for him, and we and some others searched around Apocalypseburg and The Stairgate, but… We couldn’t find him.”

“We searched and searched for him, as others started to rebuild and unite our worlds into Syspocalypstar. But eventually we had to accept the fact that… Emmet was… Gone.” 

Lucy longingly stared at the statue’s face as she reminisced.

“We built this statue together to remind everyone of his bravery and kindness, and everything he’d done for us.” She concluded. They all stared at the statue forlornly as the memories of it all freshly recirculated in their minds.

  


Rex bowed his head away from them, his messy hair covering his eyes as his leather gloves creaked under his tight fists. 

“So… You gave up on him?”

Lucy gasped at him in shock.

“What? No we di-”

Rex interrupted her in a harsh tone lanced with venom.

“Do you think he’d have given up on _you?_ ”

Lucy was taken aback by that. After a brief moment to think and recover, she replied.

“...No. If I knew Emmet, he would never have given up on us.”

Rex gritted his teeth, his fists shook under the strain he was putting on them.

“ _Then I guess you didn’t know him as well as you thought you did._ ” 

Lucy was stunned and the others gasped in shock. 

“What did you say…?”

A crazed smile crawled across his face as he could no longer hold back his pent up anger.

“Heh-ha! You- You _really think_ , he’d _never_ have given up on all of you?!”

Lucy snapped at him in anger. 

“Hey! You didn’t even know him!”

Rex’s voice cracked as he maniacally laughed at her. 

“ **_I_ ** _didn’t know him?!_ And you think you _did?_ You _really thought_ that weak little sap could keep a hold of that _incessant_ optimism of his no matter what?! Well, I got news for you- HE COULDN’T!”

Lucy could barely process what she’d heard. Benny jumped in to ask the burning question on all their minds.

“You... You know what happened to him?!” 

Rex snorted dismissively, backing slowly away from the group, inching his way closer towards the statue. 

“Yeah, you could say that.”

They all lashed out at him, shouting over one another. 

“WHERE’S EMMET?!”

“WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?!”

“WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM?!”

“IF YOU HURT HIM-!”

Rex’s bitter scowl deepened. They _dared_ to get mad at him? They _dared_ to show that they cared for him now? Well it was too little too late. They’d just admitted they’d given up looking for him. They really had _abandoned_ him. So, if they wanted answers, he’d give them answers! Consequences be **damned!**

“You really want to know what happened to him? Fine. I’ll tell you what happened to him! There he was, in his stupid, little, adorable house ship trying to get through the Stairgate, when he came across a field of glassteroids. There were too many of them, he couldn’t manoeuvre through them fast enough, so he _crashed_. He was hurled onto the dust planet _Undar_ of the Dryar system. And as if that wasn’t _bad enough_ , he was also stuck there in the realm of The Man Upstairs. Have you ever BEEN THERE?! Ha-ha! I’m sure you’d all **_love it!_ ** It’s a real **_fun time!_ ** ” 

They watched him intently as he ranted and slowly started to pace back and forth in front of the statue. His gruff voice grew louder and louder as he spoke, constantly cracking with emotion. 

“You see- in their realm, we can’t move! AT ALL! And you see our quaint little universe in a very different way! You could see _aaaalllllll_ of Syspocalypstar on Undar! Your sweet little Emmet could see everything that was happening here. He could see all of you having fun! Singing and dancing and having a _great time!_ He could see you living all of your lives happily without him. And no matter how much he shouted. No matter how much he screamed for you, cried for you, and _begged_ for you to save him, you never came! He just laid there, utterly paralysed, hoping that he’d be noticed, longing so _desperately_ to be rescued. It’s _hilariously_ ironic when you think about it- He’d gone to rescue all of you and you didn’t even need it! But when he needed rescuing, you were all too busy with your new lives to bother!”

As they listened, piece by terrible piece began to slowly fit into place. 

“But do you wanna know what the _really_ funny part is? How long he held out hope that his **_friends_ ** would come save him. He wasted about 2 years on that! Until one day he just- snapped. He finally realised the **_truth_ ** . His **_friends_ ** were _never_ coming back for him and the only person he could count on, was himself. So you see, he _did give up on you!_ ”

That was a stab to the heart for them all, but was especially painful for Lucy. The truth was dawning on them all, but their hearts wanted to do anything but accept it. They wanted this horror story to stop, but Rex Dangervest continued. He was blind to them now, and he couldn’t have stopped his tirade even if he had wanted to. The hysterical edge to his voice had entirely taken over, and not only that, but his tone has risen an octave or two, sounding more and more like a manic version of Emmet by the second. 

“And he cried! Oh he cried, and he cried, until he couldn’t anymore. And then he thought about what he could have possibly done to avoid such a fate. He remembered everything, everyone had ever said to him about him being too sweet, too soft, not tough enough and he used it. He used everything! He used his anger to finally escape his prison, to take a stand! He reshaped himself into the man everyone else wanted him to be! THE MAN HE _NEEDED_ TO BE! **_ME!!!_ **” 

He stood there before them, a hysterical look in his eyes as he panted with effort. They were utterly bewildered and heartbroken. Lucy took a tentative step forward, her hand outstretched.

“... _Emmet?_ ”

  


He stood stock still. He didn’t think. He didn’t _breathe_. 

  


“...”

  


The silence was deafening. 

  


“Weren’t you _listening?_ ” 

  


Pure, unhinged, fury exploded out of his every word. 

  


“I’M! _NOT!_ **_EMMET!!!_** YOUR EMMET _DIED_ YEARS AGO! AND NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU, OR ME, OR ANYONE ELSE WANTS, HE’S **_NEVER COMING BACK!_** ”

Rex pulled back his trembling right fist and aimed it at the statue. The others frozen in place by his unbridled outrage expressed through a voice that they’d only ever heard as sweet and kind. 

“EMMET! _IS!_ **_DEAD!!!_** ”

He thrust his fist at the statue of his former self with all his might, punching clean through and shattering it into tiny pieces. All his pent up rage had burst through and channelled itself into that single punch, and it wasn’t until after he’d dealt the blow that he fully took in the mortified looks on his friends' faces. They were numb with shock and terror, some staring at him and others at the remnants of the statue. Slowly he looked over at the destruction he’d caused. The statue had been utterly obliterated beyond repair… And he was responsible. As fast as his anger had come, it went. Leaving him with nothing but horror as he realised what he’d done, and exactly what he’d said. 

He’d let the truth bomb drop without any warning, in the worst possible way imaginable. He’d let his anger get the best of him and control him without any rational thought. And he’d also decimated any chance he’d have at being friends with them again. 

The enraged look on his face melted away. The adrenaline coursing through his system dissipated, leaving him light-headed as he lowered his shaking fist from where he’d held it punching the statue. He looked up, meeting Lucy’s eyes. She was crying. Her trembling hands covered her mouth as she did nothing but stare back at him. And that was all his already broken heart needed to be shattered into pieces. 

Tears fell rapidly down his face. He took a staggering step back, then another, and another, until finally his body kicked into gear and he turned, running away from the others as fast as he could and never looking back. Sobs racked his body as he ran through the streets looking for his bike. A number of people shot him concerned glances but he didn’t care, he had to get out of there! He had to get away from everyone before he did any more harm. He was a fool to think he could change, to think he could be happy with his friends again. Maybe he didn’t _want_ to be the bad guy anymore, but that didn’t make him a _good guy_ either. 

  


What had he done?

  


He ruined it. That’s what he’d done. He’d ruined his second chance. He’d never get his friends back now. Everything was hopeless. 

  


After what seemed like ages, he found his bike. He jumped up onto the seat and revved it to life as fast as he could. He tore through the streets, tears blurring his vision as he dodged and weaved through traffic, ignoring all road signs and lights as he flew by them. Unlike his happier jaunt earlier, this time he had a goal in mind: get out of the city and as far away from everyone as fast as he could. 

And that’s just what he did. 

He drove off into the desert, never to return. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...
> 
> That happened.
> 
> Looks like Rex's habit of not thinking things through and acting like he knows what he's doing came back to bite him in the ass. The truth bomb has dropped, but how will his friends react?
> 
> Luckily you'll only have a day to wait to find out and also recover from these feels. Chapter 3: Traces Of You, will come out tomorrow around 3pm (BST).


	3. Traces Of You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to piece_of_resistance for helping me by Beta reading this chapter and suggesting some changes! It was a big help :D If you haven't yet, go check out her amazing stuff here and on tumblr!
> 
> EDIT: This chapter now has a piece of art by the amazing Kelpony on tumblr/ BuizelCream on DA and Instagram! :D Go look at his wonderful art if you haven't!

_“ ...Emmet. ”_

Lucy whispered it, almost silently, as she saw him turn and leave. 

How could her world have come crashing down so spectacularly so quickly?

How could having Emmet miraculously returning to them alive be the worst thing she’d ever felt?

How could she not have known who he was from the moment she’d first seen him?

She didn’t know.

The others gathered close together, utterly broken and lost. 

“Rex was… Emmet? All along?” Batman asked to no one in particular. 

“Why didn’t he tell us?” Unikitty asked.

“We didn’t recognise him.” Benny admitted regretfully as he floated down to the ground and hugged himself. 

“He was so different.” Metalbeard said, staring vacantly at the ground.

“He was so angry…” Unikitty said, her ears drooping as she curled her tail around herself. 

“What do we do now? Should we go after him?” Benny asked, looking around at the others for guidance. They looked between each other in silence.

Lucy stayed quiet for a moment, thinking about it, before she made a decision. 

“I’m going after him.” 

The others perked up with determination. Batman stood at attention as he looked at her.

“We’ll come with you.”

She’d only taken a couple steps, but immediately paused and looked back at them. 

“No. I think right now, it would be best if only one of us went. All of us might be too much for him.”

They all looked down dejectedly, but silently agreed. Lucy looked at them with determination written on her face as she spoke with the utmost conviction.

“I’ll let you know when I’ve found him and gotten him somewhere safe. I promise you all, I won’t lose him again.”

She ran off in the same direction as Emmet (or was it Rex?) and followed his path straight for a while. Her eyes darted everywhere, checking down every road, every alley and through every window. She listened out for every little sound she could, hoping to hear his voice or his footfalls through the bustling city streets. She had to find him. More than anything else she’d ever wanted, she had to get him back. They’d already been separated from him once, she couldn’t let it happen again. But where would he go? What would he do? 

Suddenly she heard a loud engine roar coming from a road to her left. She immediately turned and caught sight of Emmet tearing through traffic on his motorbike. She ran down the street as fast as her feet could carry her. Her heart pounded in her head. 

By the time she reached the end of the street, she saw him recklessly turn off at the junction, narrowly avoiding hitting a turning car and heading down another road. 

“Emmet!” She called out to him. But it was no use, he was too far away to hear her. She’d never catch up to him on foot. She needed a better way to follow where he was going or she was going to lose him. 

As she was running along, she caught sight of a fire escape ladder going up the side of one of the shops. In a quick motion she ran up the wall and grabbed onto the ladder, pulling herself up and frantically climbing upwards. When she reached the top, she sprinted across the roof and leapt to the next building. She kept going, jumping from one roof to the next as she followed the disappearing sound of Emmet’s motorcycle. Eventually she reached a building that was separated from the next by a wide main road, preventing her from following by rooftop. Luckily her high vantage point gave her a good birds eye view of a number of streets, and she was able to spot him driving down a one way road that led out of town. She stood there for a moment, confused. Emmet was taking his bike out of the city and into the open desert. Where could he possibly be going?

She expertly parkoured down the building and into an adjacent alley way. A quick scan of her surroundings showed there were enough parts to make a very basic motorcycle and after throwing it all together as quick as possible, she tore off after Emmet. She weaved through traffic at top speed, quickly clearing the built up area and driving into open desert. Dust kicked up into her face and her bike with its narrow tires threatened to sink into the sand, but she kept going. She followed the wide tracks Emmet had left in the sand, incredibly grateful that the wind was calm and hadn’t blown them away. 

After ages of following him, she finally found something promising. Emmet’s motorcycle was parked in the sand at the base of a dune right in front of her. She slowed to a stop and let her bike sink into the sand as she jumped off it and ran. Emmet wasn’t on or next to his motorcycle, and she had the briefest moment of panic before seeing footsteps leading up the sand dune. 

Slowly she followed them up the dune, hoping once she reached the peak that he wouldn’t be much further ahead.

And as luck would have it, he wasn’t.

There he was just meters in front of her, her _Emmet_ _,_ sat alone in the middle of nowhere, his back to her, with his head bowed down and hugging his knees. 

And she had no idea what to say to him.

He sniffed abruptly. Like the kind someone did after they’d been crying heavily.

_“ ...What are_ **_you_ ** _doing here?"_ he growled quietly when he noticed her presence.

She was almost too stunned to reply. Wasn’t it obvious why she was there? And the way he’d said it. He’d never used a tone like that with her before. It was too bitter, too angry, too hurt to sound anything like the Emmet she remembered. But quickly she gathered her resolve and replied sincerely. 

“I came to find you.”

He let out a shuddering sob.

_"Did you now?"_

The breathless, shocked way he’d said that shook her heart to its core. 

“Yes…” She said, dazed. 

“I couldn’t lose you again.” She admitted. 

He stiffened noticeably, so frozen he didn’t even breathe for a moment.

“...”

He curled in on himself more, grasping his biceps tightly in a self embrace. 

_“How can you say that after how I acted?_ ” he asked, his voice quiet, yet in a more Emmet-like octave than before.

But the genuine, heartbroken confusion in his voice rattled her. He questioned why she’d come find him? She could somewhat see his scepticism as, granted, she hadn’t been able to find him for the past two years. Two years that he had apparently spent in isolation on some kind of weird desolate planet. The thought of him being lost or even dead had pained her every single day he was gone, but to find out the truth was somehow so much worse. 

But surely he knew she’d have found him if she could! Surely he knew that she had tried her hardest? That not a day went by that she didn’t think of him! But from the way he’d acted before to the way he was acting now, it truly seemed like he believed (or at least felt like) they’d left him on purpose. He had felt abandoned and now, after his outburst, he felt guilty. 

She couldn’t let him think that. She had to convince him she was genuine. 

“Because I care about you. You felt hurt, and maybe you did overreact a bit, but… I saw that look of regret in your eyes before you left. I’m not gonna leave someone I care about in pain like that. Especially not you.”

He was still for a moment, quietly looking out to the horizon.

“...I didn’t want things to turn out like this.” He began.

“I knew I wasn’t ready to see everyone, to see _you_ again so soon. But you all saw me and I panicked. I thought I could fumble my way through things. Find out what you were all really like now and… what you thought of me. All whilst I acted like the tough guy I’ve made myself into over the years.” 

She slowly walked closer to him as he talked, making sure she wouldn’t startle him.

“I didn’t give myself the time I needed to heal and figure out who I wanted to be. Everything I’d been through still felt so raw. So when I saw that statue, heard those words, that you’d really ‘given up’ on me… It was too much for me. Everything just- poured out.”

She was by his side now. Slowly she sat down next to him. From here she could see his eyes were red and puffy, and fresh tears silently flowed down his face.

“But it’s too late. I’ve ruined everything now. I’m never gonna have a chance to be friends with all of you again.”

He sniffed hard, trying to hold back even more tears that just wouldn’t stop coming. Lucy wanted to reach out and comfort him, but she couldn’t risk it yet, not when he was opening up like this. She tried consoling him as sincerely as she could.

“That’s not true. They’ll understand. We can talk it all out.” 

He turned his head away from her. 

“I don’t know if that’ll be enough. You don’t even know the half of what’s happened to me. You have no idea what terrible things I’ve done. What I almost did… L-Lucy… I did a _horrible thing_.” 

His voice shook, like even he was scared of himself. But she couldn’t believe that. Emmet may have been acting different, but what’s the worst thing he could have possibly done?

“...I’m sure it can’t have been-”

He turned and snapped at her.

“NO! It was Lucy! And it wasn’t an ‘Emmet bad thing’ either, like, stepping on a ladybug or something, no. This was an objectively terrible thing! It would have been catastrophic!”

Part of her didn’t want to believe him, but he was being deadly serious and she had to hear him out.

“You can tell me about it, if you want.” She asked.

He immediately deflated, his frustration quickly replaced by sadness again.

“If I did that, you’d hate me more than you already do.”

She needed him to talk to her. What was making him think this way? Just how had his thinking changed this much?

“I don’t hate you. And I promise you, no matter what, I won’t.”

He looked her in the eyes, studying her, trying to find any hint that she was lying.

“...”

But in the end, he found none, and for the first time in years he found himself trusting her just enough to believe her.

“Ok.”

And so, he began to tell her his story.

He told her everything, right from the beginning. He told her how he’d gotten stuck on Undar, what torture it had been and how long he’d endured it. He told her how much it had hurt seeing his friends be happy without him while he was trapped and abandoned. He’d held out hope for so long. He’d never really had friends before they’d come along. He’d been so alone, with a potted plant as his only companion, and he had been determined that once he’d got friends he would never let them go. He’d always be there for them and be the best friend he could possibly be. He thought he’d been that, but it turned out that wasn’t enough. They weren’t coming for him. He was going to stay on Undar forever, more alone than he’d ever been before. 

Eventually his incessant intrusive thoughts got the better of him, and he finally gave up hope.

And that was when he got mad and decided to get tough, just like everyone had wanted him to during the five year apocalypse, just like _she_ had wanted him to. And how could he not have decided that was the best thing for him to do? It had been the last things she and all the other Apocalypseburgers had told and berated him for!

So he got tough, he got a new look, a new name and started developing a whole new attitude. 

He told her all about his time machine plan. How he’d gotten and trained a crew of velociraptors, become galaxy defender, a cowboy, an archaeologist and half a dozen other things. That, in total, he’d spent five years time-travelling, perfecting his strategy and becoming the most bad-ass tough guy there ever was.

And so he’d enacted his grand plan: Armamageddon.

This was the biggest part he’d been dreading telling her. His plan to destroy the entire universe, all the things he’d done to past Emmet and to her, and everything else. He didn’t dare look her in the face when he told her this. He couldn’t bear seeing her horrified expression again. Though had he looked, he’d have never seen horror on her face. Surprise, shock, and sadness on the other hand would have been a different story.

Finally though, his tale caught up with the present. 

“So then I thought I’d disappeared for good. What I’d done should have erased me from existence entirely. But it didn’t. I’m still here. And I’m not sure why. Your counterpart told me what I myself had told Lord Business so long ago, that I didn’t have to be the bad guy… When I came back and realised I had a second chance at life, I was sure I could do that. That I could be better. Now? I don’t know. Wanting to be a better person and being able to become one are two very different things. I don’t know if I even have enough good left in me to change.”

Tears threatened to fall from his eyes again, his feelings of hopelessness and uncertainty getting the better of him. Lucy slowly reached out a hand to touch his shoulder. She didn’t want to see him cry again. She needed to comfort him. He may have made some bad and morally ambiguous decisions in the past, but he had suffered so much, and she was sure he genuinely wanted to change for the better. She didn’t want him to be sad anymore. Gently, her hand reached his shoulder.

“...Emmet.”

He quickly whirled around and snatched his arm away from her.

“I’M NOT EMMET! NOT-!”

At seeing the shocked look on her face, he immediately stopped. Calming his frustrations, he continued in a softer, sadder tone.

“Not anymore…I…”

He paused, emotions welling up inside him.

“I don’t even know _how to be_ Emmet anymore.”

He closed his eyes as Lucy could do nothing but look at him. It was obvious to her now that Rex still had a lot of issues with who he used to be. Conflicting emotions inside him that he didn’t know how to properly deal with. How could she help him?

For a minute, she wasn’t sure, but then she had an epiphany. 

“You don’t have to be.” She told him. He just laughed and looked up at her.

“Heh-heh. But- I do, don’t I? Rex Dangervest went too far and almost destroyed everything. Emmet Brickowski never hurt a fly, he even saved everyone once. It’s obvious which of the two I need to be. Which one everyone wants.”

“But would that make _you_ happy? Going back to being _exactly_ like you were as Emmet?” She asked. He paused as he thought about it, but his answer was clear.

“No. It probably wouldn’t. But what can I do?”

“You could be someone different?” she suggested. He wasn’t expecting that. And to be honest, the thought hadn’t occurred to him.

“What do you mean?”

She smiled at him reassuringly.

“You’ve changed a lot. You’ve seen, and done, and learnt so many things. That’s what people do, it’s how they grow and mature. You look back on yourself and learn from everything you’ve done. You want to change? Then do. Take all the good things about being Emmet and all the good things about being Rex, and decide what you like and want to take on board. And maybe you’ll make mistakes, but you can learn from them and use them to try to change yourself. You can be someone new who you _want_ to be! Not who you were!”

He found himself being enamoured by her conviction, but after she’d finished, he looked away, unsure. Her heart sank slightly, but she continued.

“And…You don’t have to do this alone.”

He kept his gaze away from her.

“There are people who care about you. People like me, who want to help with what you’re going through. Maybe we haven’t been exactly in your shoes, but we are willing to listen and help in whatever way we can. We can take things slowly, step by step. What do you say?”

She looked at him with the biggest, most genuine, hope-filled smile she could muster. He looked back at her, debating everything she’d said. He came to a conclusion.

“I… I don’t know if I can trust you like I did before.”

Her smile started to fade. She worried for a second that she hadn’t gotten through to him. But then, he continued.

“But… I’m willing to try.” He finished.

She stared lovingly at him, her heart filling with hope. She’d _had_ gotten through to him. And now she’d at least built up enough trust with him again to try to start mending their broken relationship and help him find himself again. 

He smiled back at her too. It wasn’t quite as big as hers, but it was just as hopeful. He did decide to add one more thing though.

“And if you don’t mind, I’d like to be called Rex. Just Rex, for now anyway.”

He seemed almost nervous asking, but she just kept on smiling. She reached out to him again, resting her hand on his arm and giving it a gentle squeeze. 

“Of course… Rex.” 

He smiled back at her and she removed her hand. Then the two of them stood up and slowly ambled towards their bikes down the sand dune.

"So, after what you said, I'm guessing you don't have anywhere to stay?" She asked.

"No. I don't. My ship is gone. It might still be in the other timeline. I kinda hope it is. I'm sure that Emmet would look after my raptors. He's a good kid, he would make sure they're ok.” 

Rex stopped for a second and chuckled. 

“Funny. I'm more worried about them than the fact that I don't have a home anymore. It's no big deal though. I'll just find some bricks and make myself a little shelter. I can rough it for a while."

He tried to shrug it off with a tough smile, but it was obvious to both of them that that was a terrible plan.

"You know it is getting late. I do have an apartment in town. It's not massive, but I do have a couch you could crash on, if you want?"

He hesitated for a moment, mulling it over in his mind. But a few seconds later a small smile grew on his face, along with a slight blush on his cheeks. 

"I'd like that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like things are starting to look up for Rex! But he still has a long way to go. 
> 
> You know I had a hard time settling on a title for this chapter, which was weird because all the other titles were easy to come up with. For a long while this was gonna be called "Gone But Not Forgotten", but it didn't quite feel right. Then I was listening to some songs from the Count of Monte Cristo Musical and found that the song, "I know those eyes/this man is dead" fit thematically well with this chapter. So the chapter title is in reference to the line "There in that voice, traces of you". But that was too long for a title, so I shortened it. Also if you haven't I would really recommend listening to the musical, a number of the songs fit really well with Rex. Here's a link to the song for this chapter https://youtu.be/metdOn9BxXM


	4. Building Blocks

After their talk, Lucy and Rex drove their bikes back to Lucy's apartment. Rex sat down on the living room couch and removed his boots as Lucy went to her bedroom to grab a spare duvet. By the time she came back, Rex was already fast asleep and quietly snoring away. The time difference between this and the other timeline meant that Rex had spent over 20 hours awake. All the running around and heightened emotions had taken their toll on him, and made for one _very_ _exhausting_ day.

Lucy looked over him sadly as she draped the duvet on him. Now she had a quiet moment to think and study him, she couldn't help but compare how he looked now to the Emmet she remembered. His once smooth, pudgy face was now chiselled and covered in scratchy stubble. His eyes had dark bags under them, and age lines had started to appear at beside them. His hair was darker, longer, and generally messier. No longer was it diligently combed and neatly styled. There were a few faint scars on his face, but there were a lot more deeper and varied ones on his arms and shoulders. One was definitely a raptor bite. Perhaps it was from his early days training them? Then there was another noticeably deep long thin scar running down the inside of his left arm. How had he gotten that? How had he gotten any of them for that matter? 

She'd last seen him two years ago, but for him, it had been longer. Over seven years in fact. He was older now. He'd aged in more ways than one. How could he have changed so much in just a few years? The apocalypse hadn't dented his chipper attitude at all, so for his experiences to have changed him this much really showed her how devastating they must have been for him.

But there was nothing she could do about the past. What was done, was done. The future on the other hand, now that she had a say in. 

She took her phone and went off to the furthest room away from the lounge; her bedroom. Closing the door behind her, she started up a video chat to her friends. Once they'd stopped shouting over each other asking questions, she was able to tell them that she had found 'Emmet'. She told them everything. Every last detail about Rex's story that she could remember. They were all shocked, and saddened and hurt, just as she had been. But once it was over, she told them about how Rex had realised he was wrong and how he wanted to change for the better. Rex had been Emmet once, and Emmet had done so much for them. Emmet had been their _friend_. Now he needed their help, and Lucy was damned if she was going to give up on him again. The others agreed. For all Rex might have done and tried to do in some alternate timeline, he was still their old friend deep down, and he deserved a chance to be their friend again. 

Lucy informed them that it was best they take things slowly, for everyone's benefit, but that she had a plan they could try tomorrow or in a few days, depending on how Rex was feeling. They all agreed to it, and would be on standby until Lucy gave to go ahead. 

She hung up the phone, unsure but hopeful that together they could help their friend get back on his feet.

  
  


The next morning Lucy woke up uncharacteristically early. 

She walked through the living room on her way into the kitchen. Rex was still fast asleep on the sofa, sprawled out across it. The quilt was tangled around his waist and his arm was hanging loosely over the side. He snored quietly and muttered something as he wriggled around in his sleep.

_“N-no Rocky… Don’t skateboard on the table… You’ll squish the waffles…”_

She quietly giggled at that, hoping it was quiet enough to not disturb him. She continued on to the kitchen, idly wondering who Rocky was and why he'd be skateboarding indoors, when she took notice of the time. It was 9:16. The others would probably be awake by now, but she decided to wait until Rex had woken up and she'd had a chance to see how he was feeling before she made any plans with them. She started by making herself some coffee before prepping the kitchen to make her and Rex some breakfast. She decided to take inspiration from Rex's dream addled ramblings and whip up a batch of waffles. Emmet had loved waffles… and toast too. Hopefully Rex still did.

  


A short while later, Rex found himself slowly being woken up by a strong, sweet scent. He groaned and ran a hand down his face as he stiffly wriggled away from the light that was now blinding him. Despite having a full night of undisturbed sleep, he still felt extremely groggy and tired. A large part of him just wanted to curl up tight and go back to sleep, but a more curious part of him wondered what that enticing sweet smell was. After finally getting his eyes to adjust to the light, he realised he was in an unfamiliar place, lying on a purple couch of all things. After a moment or two the sleep that was clouding his mind faded and the memories of the day before returned to him.

He laid there in silence, thinking about everything. Making the decision to stay at Lucy's had made the most sense yesterday, but now that he was here, he had no idea what he was supposed to do. 

Luckily his stomach chose that moment to growl loudly and give him a good idea what he should do next. Besides, the smell from the kitchen was far too tempting to ignore anymore. 

With some noticeable creaks from his joints, he sat up and started to stretch. Lying at awkward angles on a couch that was just a bit too small for him left him a little sore, but it was nothing that wouldn't go away in an hour or so. Yawning, he stood up and made his way to the kitchen. Lucy was in the middle of pouring batter into a waffle iron when she noticed him. She smiled that oh so infectious smile at him as he came and sat down on one of the stools behind the counter island. 

"Good morning." She said, as she set the jug of batter down and closed the waffle iron. 

"Morning." He said in a slightly nervous yet hopeful tone. 

"I hope you slept ok. Unikitty is the only one who's slept on the couch before. She didn't give any complaints, but that cat would sleep soundly on pretty much anything."

He gave her a small smile, but idly began to fidget with his hands.

"It was fine, thanks. So, what's all this anyway?"

A kettle behind her chose that moment to ding as it finished boiling. She turned and started pouring water into two cups she'd already made up on the side.

"I thought I'd make us some breakfast."

Rex looked over at the messy worktop cluttered with packets and jugs and a sprinkle of flour over everything. 

"You decided to cook something? This early?"

"Half 9 isn't _that_ early."

_'For you it is.'_ He thought, but didn’t say out loud. She'd hardly ever used get up before 11, and even then she mostly just grabbed a pastry to go or poured a simple bowl of cereal. On those rare occasions when she did get up around the same time he did, he'd always been the one to do the cooking. It had always warmed his heart being able to spend his breakfast with the most special person in his life. But that had been _before_. Who knew who she was now. Maybe he didn't know her as well anymore, and she had become the kind of person to get up early and make a proper cooked breakfast. Or maybe she was just doing this especially for him. He didn't know which of those made his gut knot with emotion more.

"Here you go."

She placed a plate with a stack of waffles on it in front of him. On the very top one she'd positioned a few strawberries to make the shape of a smiley face. It was all so sickeningly sweet. His more macho side wanted to hate it, to be disgusted by it even, but he couldn't. Seeing _her_ make such a nice, kindhearted gesture made him too happy. She didn't have to do this for him, but she had. She really did still care about him. 

"I decided on waffles. I hope that's ok. 

She shuffled her feet a little, obviously nervous, but gave him a hopeful smile. He looked up at her, and for the first time in years he gave her his most genuine, Emmet-like smile he possibly could, and he meant it. 

"It's perfect."

  


\-----

  


"Are you sure you're up for this? We don't have to do this today if you're not ready."

"No, I can do this… I think."

Lucy looked at him uncertainty. He put on his best assured grin as the two of them continued to walk through the town.

"We'll look at it this way. Things can't possibly go any worse than they did yesterday." He said, chuckling away his nervousness. It was something he did in almost every other sentence, and Lucy couldn't help but feel slightly unnerved by it herself.

"Just remember, if at any point things get too much and you wanna leave and have some time on your own, you can. We'll understand."

He looked away from her, wringing his hands together, before looking back at her with a more assured smile on his face.

"Thanks, Luce."

  


After a few more minutes of walking, Lucy and Rex reached the grassy outskirts of Syspocalypstar. Waiting there for them with several containers of bricks, were Batman, Benny, Metalbeard and Unikitty. They smiled and waved at Rex as he and Lucy approached. He swallowed his fear and hoped this meeting with his friends would go better than the last.

"Hello… Everyone."

"Hey Rex."

"Ahoy there matey."

"How are you doing buddy?" Benny cautiously asked. 

Rex smiled at the spaceman.

"I'm doing ok. But I gotta say, I'm really sorry to all of you for what I said yesterday. And for uh- destroying that statue. I got a bit… emotional. That's no excuse but… yeah. I'm sorry."

They all looked at him with sad yet understanding smiles.

"It's ok Rex. We understand." Unikitty said as she hopped closer to Rex. He looked away and chuckled nervously. Unikitty decided it would be best to lighten the mood, so she put on her biggest smile and gently took hold of one of his hands with her front paws.

"Come on, let's turn that frowny face upside down! We came here to have some fun. What do you say Rex? What shall we build?"

She coaxed him towards the bins of bricks and he looked at the wide range of rainbow colours they had on offer. He tried to think of something they could all build together, but his anxious mind was drawing a blank. He wanted today to go right. More than anything he wanted to trust his friends again and be as happy as he used to be as Emmet. But he'd spent two years in complete isolation on Undar, which _may_ have made him a bit… unstable, and most of his social life afterwards had consisted of talking to and training velociraptors. So to say he'd gotten a bit socially awkward was an understatement. He usually tried to hide it underneath confident bravado but that wouldn't work in this situation. His friends were smart. They could see through it. They could tell he was anxious. But it wasn't like there was much else anyone could do to alleviate it. They were being as accommodating as possible. It was just that his fear of getting close to them again was so strong. That inane fear of opening his heart to others again. It put so much pressure on him. He couldn't get this wrong, because if he did they'd leave him again. And no matter how much he'd hardened his heart over the years he knew it would shatter if that happened. In being here with them now, he'd started to open his heart, and now all he could do was hope and try to trust the others with it.

"Umm. I'm not sure. You guys got any suggestions?" He asked.

"We could build an awesome Bat-plane?" Batman casually suggested.

Lucy shot him a glare before turning to Rex and smiling.

"Or how about a safe big-rig truck with signals and loads of warning lights?"

"Or maybe some kind of be-doubled construction mech?" Metalbeard proposed.

"Or what about a spaceship!" Benny excitedly exclaimed. The others looked at him, annoyed that he hadn't caught on to them trying to suggest Emmet-like ideas. But Rex actually perked up at Benny's idea.

"Um- I'd actually really like to build a spaceship."

Benny floated back in surprise.

"You would?!"

Rex nonchalantly rubbed his left arm.

"Yeah. I think it'd be fun to see what we could all come up with."

Benny buzzed with joy as his excited smile grew and grew.

"Awesome! Where should we start Rex?! What look do you want to go for?!"

Part of Benny's contagious enthusiasm rubbed off on Rex. He found himself feeling a little more confident than before. He'd built the Rexcelsior and a number of smaller craft for himself and his raptors over the years, so he was fairly confident that he could think something up for them all to build.

"I'm thinking something cool, in dark blue and bright green. With some fins too! Like a hot-rod spaceship!"

Batman started to get a bit excited too, and joined in with a suggestion.

"Ooh, we could totally have some black in there. Black would go great with dark blue. Oh, and speakers. Any awesome ride has to have a sick sound system to blast out music as you fly by people."

"Yeah! That would be rad!" Rex exclaimed. 

"And we could put glitter on it! To make it shiny and eye-catching!" Unikitty said, jumping up and creating a small flurry of sparkles for extra emphasis.

"Ha-ha! Hell yeah! We could use gold glitter to give it like, flames on the side or something!" 

Rex's anxiety started to fade further into the back of his mind as his vision for a rad spaceship grew clearer in his mind, and his excitement to build it distracted him from his worried thoughts. 

"Shall we get started Rex?" Lucy asked.

She beamed at him, and that made his small excited smile grow wider and happier. She could see a spark of hope igniting within him, and that prospect made her heart soar.

"Yeah. Let's get started guys!" Rex shouted as he started to grab a load of black bricks from one of the bins.

"I'll lay out a framework, then Benny can help me add onto it. Batman, you start on the sound system and work on the interior with Lucy."

"Ooh! And I'll go get the glitter!" Unikitty said, before trotting off to do so.

Metalbeard helped to grab two of his large armfuls of bricks, to give to Benny and Rex.

"I hope ye not be making this ship too small. It should be big enough for a crew, don't ye think?"

Rex looked up at him as Benny kept laying out a mostly triangular shape. 

"Yeah. I think big enough for a crew of six sounds good to me. Don't you think Benny?"

Benny paused his building to look at Rex with a big, heartfelt smile.

"Sounds about right to me Rex!"

  
  


The six of them continued to build well into the afternoon and evening, stopping part way through for a lunch break. They took the build a bit slower than usual, taking the time to think things through as a group and enjoy the simple pleasure of making something. The others made sure to include Rex in important decisions and chat with him too. It was enough to keep him well distracted from most of the stray negative thoughts that popped into his head. His earlier anxieties, while not totally gone, were temporarily forgotten and he was able to actually enjoy the time spent with his friends. They talked, they joked, they laughed. 

Rex told them some of his more fun stories about his time in space, including the time when he first taught his raptors how to fly with jet packs. He had expertly flown through an asteroid field with his own jet pack to show them how it was done. He remembered the first time he and a squad of newly trained jet pack-wielding raptors had got the jump on a colony of space-pirates during one of his galaxy defending missions. There was nothing quite as funny as the 'oh shit' look on someone's face as an eight foot tall dinosaur came flying at them from the sky. Rex even gave a demonstration of said look for emphasis, and they all had quite a laugh at that.

By the end of the day they'd built a fairly large, hot-rod spaceship that was decked out with everything they could need. The outside was black and blue, with green stripes and silver glitter frames running down the side and onto the wide V-shaped wings. At the back before the base of the were two vertical fins that spiked upwards. The interior however was more a mix of all their styles. There was a large cargo bay that looked like it had been ripped out from below the deck of a pirate ship, with small, adjoining communal quarters. There was a small kitchen and dining room that was brightly coloured pink and blue with a cloud-like table and rainbow chairs. The cockpit was black with light blue and pink accents and had five chairs, one for each of them (that could physically fit into the cockpit) as well as massive speakers to blast out their favourite tunes. 

It was a surprisingly cohesive culmination of all their efforts. Far more so than some of builds the others had tried in the past couple years. They put it down to the fact that ~~Emmet~~ _Rex_ just had a knack for coming up with a plan that could balance all their interests fairly, and lead them to a unified conclusion. Rex was the missing piece to their puzzle that could bring them all together in new and brilliant ways. They'd almost forgotten about that in the time he'd been gone. They'd gotten used to life without him, and that brought bittersweet feelings for them all. But those feelings were overtaken by the joy they felt at seeing Rex be genuinely confident and happy around them. The heartfelt smile he gave and the genuine, almost Emmet-like, laugh he let out when Lucy congratulated him on a great design lifted everyone's spirits and gave them hope. Hope that together they could help Rex and that they could all be best friends again. Maybe they'd never have the same dynamic they used to have with Emmet, but what they would have with Rex would be something different, something _new_.

And that prospect left all of them, even Rex, with hopeful excitement of the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to piece_of_resistance for helping check this chapter! :D
> 
> I think my favourite thing about writing this chapter was the domestic stuff with Lucy and Rex at the beginning. The premise of Rex crashing on her couch has a lot of fun possibilities that I might do some more of in the future. 
> 
> Though I must say, getting to use the word "be-doubled" was also great, cause that is one of the best words ever!
> 
> Also I threw in a little nod to the Rex DLC from the video game too. That was pretty fun to play through. Though I did spend pretty much my whole time 100% completing the game running around as Rex so, I might just be a *little* biased. :P
> 
> But anyway, see you all again tomorrow for chapter 5, it's gonna be a LONG one!


	5. Time Heals All Wounds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rex spends some one-on-one time with each of his friends.
> 
> This chapter is the big one folks. It's nearly 9000 words by itself! Also some of those tags will be coming into play here, namely ANGST and PTSD and that stuff, so just be aware of that. But despite all that, there's still a lot of sweetness in this chapter too. I hope you enjoy it, it's probably my favourite of the whole story :)

Rex sat in the front pilot seat of the hot-rod spaceship he and the others had built. On his computer display he checked that the energy levels were holding steady throughout all the ship’s systems. 

“Power levels are looking good Benny. You think we’re ready to take it out of the atmosphere?”

Benny glanced out the window, seeing over the sprawling landscape of the world below and fluffy clouds alongside them as they flew through the sky. He turned back to his own display and analysed the readouts.

“Yup! Cabin pressure is holding steady and our oxygen tanks are full. I say go for it!”

Rex smiled at him before powering up the ship's thrusters and steadily flying the ship upwards. They climbed through the sky and into the outer atmosphere, eventually breaking through it and flying out into open space. They soared through the stars, watching as the planet beneath them grew smaller as they flew away. Benny pressed a series of buttons and analysed the report the computer gave him.

"Looks like we had no trouble clearing the atmosphere! Structural integrity is at 100% and fuel levels are good. We actually made a really good spaceship!"

Rex looked around at the openness of space around him. It was so calm and quiet out here. He'd forgotten how peaceful it could be to just go out and fly nowhere in particular. He felt quite at home in space. He'd gotten so used to it over the years that being out here didn't seem like a big deal anymore. But what was a big deal, was the fact that he was out here with his old friend in a ship that they had all built together. He looked around at it in the cockpit and felt how smoothly it handled under his control.

"We did make a pretty good one, didn't we? When I suggested it, I didn't think we'd make one that was actually space worthy, but I'm really glad we did. It was a great idea to do a test of it Benny!"

Benny looked over his console and smiled at Rex.

"I'm glad you think so! I thought, you know, given how you picked a spaceship to build and those stories you told us, that you might like trying it out on a little flight. And I gotta say, you're doing a really good job piloting!"

Rex looked over his shoulder and smiled back at Benny, genuinely touched.

"Thanks Benny. That means a lot coming from you." 

Rex thought over what he'd just said, and found the touchy-feely sentiment of it to be a bit too mushy for his liking. Maybe he should find a way to change the subject. He brought up the sensor readings to see if there was anything of interest near them. The computer pinged at him and brought up a small nearby field of asteroids.

"Hey Benny. There's some asteroids a few clicks away from here. What do you say we really test this baby out?"

"You wanna fly through an asteroid field? You sure that's not too dangerous?"

Rex laughed and put on his most self assured grin.

"Heh-ha! No way! They don't call me _Danger_ vest for nothing! I’ve practised flying through asteroids so much, I could do it with my eyes closed!"

Maybe that made him sound overly cocky, but it was true. He'd practised every manner of flying through asteroids he could think of. He knew how to do it in a big ship, a little ship, a cute little yellow house ship, with a jet-pack, and everything in between. If he could do it in all that, he could definitely do it in this.

"Well if you're sure then let's do it! It'll be fun!"

“Hell yeah! Let’s put this baby in gear and crank up the tunes!”

Benny beeped a few buttons and started playing 80’s rock music on the ship’s impressive sound system. The large speakers Batman had installed blasted out the music at full volume as Rex powered up the thrusters to max and headed towards the asteroid field. 

Once they reached it, he kicked the ship into a lower gear and powered through the first few asteroids. He bobbed and weaved through them, doing spins and loop-de-loops with expert precision. Benny laughed and cheered as he jumped up and down in his seat, excited at being on such an energetic spaceship ride. Rex found himself laughing too from Benny’s contagious enthusiasm. He was actually enjoying having some one-on-one time with his old friend. At the start of the day he’d felt a bit apprehensive about the idea, but now he was glad he went through with it. He really could have fun with his friends again. 

In the midst of their dodging, Rex spotted a massive asteroid right ahead of them. Feeling especially confident now, he decided a bit more showing off was in order.

“Hey Benny! Watch this!”

He maxed out the thrusters, speeding at full force towards the giant rock. At the rate they were going, they were going to crash into it in a matter of moments. Rex cut out the engines, using their momentum to keep moving forward. Then, at the last second, Rex activated the port thrusters and sent them spinning into an aileron roll, successfully dodging the asteroid by mere meters. Benny looked back at it out the window and laughed triumphantly. 

“WOW! That was awesome _Emmet!!!_ ”

The beaming smile on Rex’s face snapped to a horrified gawk. He was frozen in place, his arms locked straight on the wheel as the ship barreled forward. Realising his mistake, Benny turned to face him.

“I-I mean Rex! Sorry! I just-” He paused mid-sentence as he caught sight of what was ahead.

“Uh… Rex?”

They were heading on a collision course with another asteroid.

“REX!” 

He stayed stock still, frozen in a daze.

“REX LOOK OUT!”

Rex’s attention snapped up as he clocked onto the asteroid just a few meters in front of them. With all his strength he pulled up on the controls and set the thrusters to maximum. They managed to avoid a head on collision, but as they pulled up, the bottom of the hull caught the rocky surface and with an ear-piercing screech tore through metal. They were sent careening through open space, spinning end over end as warning lights flashed and alarms blared all around. Rex pulled the controls in the opposite direction of their spin, slowing down the thrusters and stabilising them. 

They floated calmly in space. Rex powered down the engines and turned the alarms off, giving them a tense silence. 

His vice-like grip on the wheel lessened. He let go and sat completely still, holding his gloved hands together nervously.

“I uh… I’m sorry about that Benny. Didn’t mean to freeze up like that.”

“ _I’m_ sorry Rex. I didn’t mean to call you-”

“ _It doesn’t matter._ Let’s just move on. We should get back and make repairs before we end up stranded out here from fuel loss.” 

Rex laid in a course and slowly started heading the ship back home. Benny nervously looked at him, unsure how to ask about what was evidently a touchy subject with upsetting Rex further. He decided to do his best and tread carefully.

“Rex… Why did you change your name?”

He stayed silent for a moment, before glancing back over his shoulder at Benny.

“Because I wanted to be someone different.”

“But, what was wrong with being... Emmet?” Benny asked. 

Rex tapped a few controls on his console and set the ship to auto-pilot. He swivelled his chair around to face Benny. It was obvious that he didn’t want to drop the subject. So Rex thought about what to say and tried his best to answer as earnestly as he could. 

“For a long time, I thought he was too weak. That I had to be tough, to be someone else, to get anywhere in this world. I had to get rid of everything I was, including my name.”

Benny looked on at him sadly, but listened patiently as Rex continued.

“I realise now that I was wrong, Emmet- I mean- _I_ wasn’t weak before. Maybe everyone else had gotten tougher and changed, but that didn’t mean I had to. But eventually, after everything that happened, I did. And then I tried to force another past version of myself to be like that, to be like me. No one should force anyone to be something they’re not. But I did. I forced myself to be different, and so I became different. Every time I almost fell into an old pattern or had feelings like I used to, I stomped them down. I told myself to hate who I used to be so I could be someone I needed to be; someone better. But I’m not better. Just different. And maybe in some ways worse. I’ve done and tried to do some bad things, things I’d never dreamed of doing years ago. I used to be a good person. A strong person. A person who could open their heart to anyone. A person who tried to save the world, not destroy it. Looking back, I don’t know why I ever looked down on a person like that. Maybe it’s because I was jealous that I’d lost the ability to wear my heart on my sleeve like that. I dunno. 

“But the trouble is, you can’t spend as long as I have hating who you used to be and just, change your feelings overnight. Now matter how much you might want to. Just hearing that name reminds me of everything I was, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around how I feel about that. 

“So just, please, if you can, try not to call me… _Emmet_. And I’ll try not to react so badly if you do. Ok?”

Benny nodded at him assuringly. 

“Ok, Rex. I’ll try.”

Rex smiled a little and then turned back his chair to resume piloting the ship for their landing. Benny assisted, keeping a watchful eye on all their systems to make sure they’d hold together during their decent. Once they’d landed, they assessed the damage from outside. Thankfully it looked worse than it actually was. Some of the fuel tanks would need to be patched up and a number of panels would need replacing, but it was all doable. But despite that, Benny couldn’t help but look on sadly at the damaged ship. Rex noticed this, he looked at Benny, then at the ship. 

He’d really messed things up hadn’t he?

Why did he have to turn such a good day into such a messy one?

“Don’t worry Rex. We can fix it!”

Rex looked at Benny, confused. 

“Uh yeah. Of course we can. And when it’s done you can take it out all you want. She really handles like a dream.”

“I don’t doubt it. But it might be a while before we can fly her out into space again. Don’t want to rush repairs and risk hull fractures!”

“Wait, _‘we’_? You mean you still want to go flying with me? Even after what happened?”

Benny scoffed.

“Well of course! You’re my friend. And you’re the only one -besides my other 80’s something space buddies- who gets spaceships and 80’s music as much as I do.” 

Benny and his never dwindling enthusiasm put Rex at ease, and helped him to believe that what he was saying was the truth.

“Thanks Benny.”

“Anytime, Rex!”

\-----

“Hey! How was your day with Benny?” Lucy greeted Rex as he walked into her apartment. He kicked off his boots by the door and walked over to the couch, promptly letting himself fall onto it and faceplant the thing with a _thwump_. 

“ _Eventful_.” He muffled into the cushions. She came in from the kitchen doorway, looking at him with concern. 

“Did it not go well?”

He lifted his head slightly from the cushions and looked up at her.

“Not really.” He said, before letting his head drop back down. 

“Care to elaborate on that?” she asked.

“Not at the moment.” Rex said into the sofa. 

She hovered over him, and after a moment Rex sighed and sat up, resting his head in one hand.

“It started off great, then I messed up and broke the ship. Now we’re gonna have to fix the damn thing.”

“I’m sure Benny won't mind. After all, he’ll take any excuse to work on anything spaceship related." She assured him. He looked down at the floor.

"I guess that's true…"

He looked in a real slump. She tried to think of a way to cheer him up but couldn't come up with much, so instead decided to try distracting him instead.

"I started making some dinner for us. Think you could help peel some veggies?"

"Sure." He sighed.

He rolled off the couch and followed her into the kitchen. Whilst Lucy grabbed some carrots from the fridge, he went over to the sink. He pulled off his gloves, setting them aside before washing his hands. She glanced over at him when she set the carrots down. His hands were noticeably paler than his arms. There were a number of tiny scars that grouped together to look like a number of little bite marks on his palms and fingers. His knuckles were calloused and rough, the mark of years of toughening up his hands from punching. She turned away and busied herself getting some peas out the freezer before he could notice her looking at him. 

Whilst she did that, Rex grabbed a knife and started peeling a few carrots. He then put one down and started chopping it into slices with lightning speed and precision. Lucy took notice and was thoroughly surprised.

"Wow. That's some pretty fast chopping."

He smiled over his shoulder at her and dumped the slices he'd cut into a pot before grabbing another carrot.

"Thanks. I got very out of practice with cooking after… well, you know. But once I got back into it, I got pretty good at dealing with fruit and veg. I mean they are kind of important when most of what you eat is salad."

Lucy scrunched up her face as she looked at him confused.

"I thought you hated salad?"

He shrugged.

"Well I still kinda do. But I got used to it. Can't have a rad bod like this without eating healthy!" 

He illustrated his point by turning towards her, puffing out his broad chest and flexing his arms in a striking pose. As she looked at his toned, muscular biceps, she found herself blushing. He'd always been strong, but now he no longer had any baby fat to hide his chiselled features. It was most noticeable on his face and around his stomach. Gone was his soft squishy face and round, huggable tummy. His waist was far more tapered and his jaw and cheekbones were prominent and angular. He really had done a lot to change himself. 

But despite the fact she had loved his chunkier, cuddlier look, she had to admit that his new look had its own appeal. 

He chuckled at seeing her rather prominent blush and lowered his arms, turning back to continue prepping the carrots. She decided to continue her own preparations and change the subject.

“You know, about the whole Benny thing from earlier. I'm sure if you just give yourself a day or two you'll feel better about it. And you know, you're still relearning things. If you take from whatever happened today, then I’m positive things will go better next time.” 

He dropped the last of the carrots into the pot and placed it on the stove. He smiled at her nervously, but with a touch of hope.

“I hope you’re right about that Luce.”

\-----

"Unikitty, why are we heading out to the middle of nowhere?" Rex asked after about ten minutes of walking through the desolate desert. 

"We're going somewhere special. It shouldn't be too much farther." Unikitty said, slightly speeding up her trot. Rex just shook his head and huffed, deciding not to question it. He'd find out what Unikitty had planned for their day out together soon enough.

"You know we could have taken my motorbike to… wherever it is we're going. Might have been faster."

Unikitty's ears flattened back nervously for a moment, before quickly snapping back forward as she put a bright smile on her face.

"Yeah, but there's nothing like a brisk walk through the desert to stay pumped up and happy!"

"I suppose. Plus it is good exercise. And I have been neglecting my workout routine since I got back."

Unikitty smiled and hopped up in the air.

"That's the spirit!"

After about another ten minutes they started to walk through the wrecked buildings of Bricksburg. Old abandoned office towers and apartment buildings loomed over them. The dusty wind blew through them and made ghostly creaking noises. 

"Uh, Unikitty… what are we doing here?"

She was silent for a moment. But slowly she stopped walking and her ears folded back sadly.

"I used to come here a lot. Back when we were fighting the Systarians."

Rex was taken aback by her unusually solemn demeanour. He listened in silence as he looked at the wrecked buildings around him. He'd assumed their decay was due to age and neglect, but looking at them closer he could see that parts of them had been purposely smashed and areas covered in ash from where they'd been burnt. 

"I was angry. Angry at so much. I'd lost my home, everything and everyone I'd ever cared about. And then when there was hope, when we thought we'd won on Taco Tuesday, our hope was shattered. We constantly fought the Systarians and we couldn't rebuild because of them. I could never have a Cloud Cuckoo Land again…"

Rex stood closer to her and rested a hand on her shoulder, his old friend instincts kicking in with a need to comfort her.

"So I came here." She continued.

"I took out all my anger on this wreckage. Out here I could get as mad as I wanted, shout as loud as I could, and do it all without hurting anyone. It helped, I think. At least a little. I thought maybe it could help you too."

She looked up at him with a tired look in her eyes. Rex let go of her and laughed nervously as he looked around.

"Ha- What? You want me to smash some stuff?"

She nodded seriously. Rex however, diverted his gaze from her, his eyes darting around to look at anything but her.

"What makes you think I need to smash stuff? I mean- I'm perfectly happy now! Getting closer to you guys again, hanging out, I'm better than ever! Heh."

She kept her stare on him, saying nothing. 

"I-I-I r-really am! Honest! What do I have to be mad about?!” 

His hands shook with anxiety, so he busied them by gesturing widely.

"E-everything is going **_great!_ ** I-I shouldn't still be mad about what happened! About being left to rot, alone… for _years!_ Why would I still be mad about that!?!"

He tapped his foot anxiously whilst his face battled over expressing a reassuring smile or a scowl of rage. The result was a twisted grimace that made him look like he was in terrible pain.

" _I'm_ **_fine!_ ** I can just not think about all that! I can just hold all my feelings in, right here-" he said, gesturing to his chest with a quivering hand.

"-and then one day I'll die. Ha-ha! Simple!" 

Unikitty looked at him, her expression unchanged. Rex however, looked more manic by the second. He was at war with himself. His emotions bubbled and boiled inside him like a vat about to blow. He'd defaulted to hiding his feelings, keeping them inside for so long. Now that he had a chance to let it all out, he didn't know what to do with himself. 

" _I'm not angry!_ "

Again, she didn't move.

"I'M NOT!"

Not a flicker in her resolve.

" _I'M NOT ANGRY!!!"_

He wasn't convincing her.

" _I'M NOT! I'M-!"_

Something was building inside him, at the brink of bursting out.

" **_I'M-! I-I-I... I'M…_ **"

His hands were balled into incredibly tight fists at his side, they shook so violently with a feeling he couldn't contain.

And then, the cacophony of emotions inside him erupted in thunderous fury.

" **_I'M F U C K I N G F U R I O U S!!!!!!_ **"

With all his might he slammed his foot down on the ground, creating a massive crack in the dust covered concrete and making a shockwave that sent rubble flying off all around him. He let out a guttural, high pitched scream that burnt his throat and smashed both his fists into the ground, throwing up a large slab of concrete that he grabbed and hurled at the nearest building. It shattered and smashed a window on impact, but that wasn't enough. He needed _destruction_. He ran at the building roaring, with a fist raised high. He ploughed through brick and concrete, knocking out an entire wall. He screamed and shouted as he threw punch after punch, sending wreckage flying at every angle. 

" _I WAS LEFT BEHIND!_ "

A chunk of brick flew at his cheek and gave him a small, long cut.

"I WAS FORGOTTEN!"

He kicked through a corner pillar, collapsing another section of wall. 

"PARALYSED!"

He chucked a clump of concrete at the ground.

" **_ALONE!!_ **"

A window splintered and shattered under his fist.

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG! I JUST WANTED TO SAVE MY FRIENDS!"

Falling to his knees, he slammed his hands on the ground and dragged his fingers through the loose debris.

"I DIDN'T DESERVE TO BE _TORTURED_ LIKE I WAS!" He screamed up at the sky, as he squeezed and crushed rock in his hands.

"IT WASN'T FAIR! IT _ISN'T_ FAIR!"

He slapped his hands on the rubble beneath him to emphasise every word.

"WHY ME?! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE ME?!! WHY WASN'T I TOUGH ENOUGH?"

He roughly stood up, kicking away brick and stomping on glass as he did so.

"WHY DIDN'T ANYONE SAVE ME?!"

He ran to another building and began ploughing his fists into the base of it with reckless abandon. His padded gloves wore thin and no longer did anything to protect his hands.

" _THEY SAVED_ **_HIM!_ ** _BUT NOT_ **_ME!_ **"

Crack after crack appeared along the former office tower's walls, growing longer and deeper with every hit, forming a fracture that threatened to tear the building apart at any moment. But Rex did not relent. He charged on, even through all the pain every punch caused him, as tears stung the corners of his eyes.

" _WHY WAS_ **_I_ ** _ANY DIFFERENT?!_ "

The sound of glass cracking and concrete snapping apart echoed through the wasteland. Rex pulled back both his bloodied fists, then swung them at the tower for a final blow.

" **_WHAT DID I DO WRONG?!!!_ **"

As soon as his fists collided with the building, the threads holding it together snapped. The small gaps between the fractures widened into gorges, and the cascade of frenzied destruction brought the whole thing tumbling down. 

Rex stood back from it, panting in pain and exhaustion as bricks clattered to the ground and kicked up layer after layer of dust and sand all around him. 

"WHA- What did I…"

His legs collapsed from under him and he fell back on his butt. The adrenaline and anger seeped out of his body, leaving him drained and hollow. Tears flowed like rivers from his eyes. He gasped.

"What did I do to _deserve all this?"_ He sobbed, raising his spasming hands to grasp his own arms in a pitiful hug to ground himself. 

" _Why did they have to leave me?_ " He nasally blubbered through unrelenting tears as he rocked himself on the spot.

" _Why did they move on without me?_ " He whispered, slowly lowering himself into his side on the ground, his arms still pinned in an unyielding self embrace.

" _I finally had friends. I wasn't supposed to be alone ever again…"_

It was at this point that Unikitty walked over to him from her spot outside of the destruction radius. She said nothing as she approached. She gazed down at him with pitiful understanding, before walking in front of him and curling up against him. He didn't really register her presence at first, but then he felt her soft fur on his arms. Slowly and shakily he let go of himself and moved his hand to touch her fur. He stroked it once, then pulled himself closer to hug her tight and shove his face into the silky soft fur of her back. 

The floodgates burst open, and his tears fell faster as sobs wracked his entire body. He clung to her like a lifeline, like she was the only thing keeping him from being dragged down into depths that he would never surface from. 

And he cried.

He sobbed. He wailed. He screamed. 

All those years where he'd been holding back his feelings, holding back his sadness, his anger, his tears because it _'wasn't tough for a man to_ **_ever_ ** _cry'_ , came back at him with a vengeance. In that moment he made up for every feeling he'd repressed and every tear he'd ever held back, tenfold. 

Tears and snot, and dirt and blood stained Unikitty's pristine fur, but she didn't care. She wanted to help Rex, and she couldn't care less if a little dirt and grime were involved. He needed to get his feelings out, to stop bottling everything up inside, and this was the way she knew how to do that.

Eventually Rex ran out of tears to shed. His breathing slowed to a steady rate and his vice-like-grip on Unikitty subsided. Slowly he backed up and pushed himself into a sitting position, all the while staring blankly ahead. Unikitty cautiously turned to face him, then waited patiently for him to make the first move. After a minute or so, he blinked, and turned to meet her gaze.

"I…" he started. Pausing to take a gulp when he found that speaking in his usual tough tone ripped at his now sore throat. He tried again, only quieter and softer.

"I think… I needed that… Needed to get that all out…"

She put a gentle paw on his arm in assurance, mindful of his damaged hands.

"This place will be here for you, for however long you need it… And I'll be there for you, if you ever need a shoulder to cry on or anything else…"

He gave her a small, weak, but genuine smile as he looked at her. Slowly, and very unsure about the whole thing, he moved his arms to wrap around her and give her a hug. She wrapped her paws as far as she could around his broad back and nuzzled her head into his shoulder. He did the same, her soft fur and bristly whiskers tickling the side of his face.

They stayed that way for a while, as Rex finally felt (for the first time in a long while) truly content and safe in the arms of a friend he could trust.

\-----

Rex idly picked at the edges of the bandages on his hands as he waited for Metalbeard to come back out onto the deck of his ship, " _The Sea Cow's Revenge_ ". He was recovering well from the damage to his hands, but unfortunately they were getting to that annoyingly itchy stage of healing. Hopefully he'd be out of the wrappings soon and back into some decent gloves.

He heard a long creak as the grate to below deck lifted open, and Metalbeard came walking up the stairs.

"Sorry for taking so long matey, but those wriggly supplies didnae feel like being strapped down again."

After flattening back his bandages, he looked up and smiled at Metalbeard.

"It's no problem. Don't want anything going overboard after all." 

"Aye." Metalbeard affirmed as he walked past Rex and headed towards the wheel of the ship. Metalbeard hopped up the two levels whilst Rex followed him up the stairs. By the time he had walked up there, Metalbeard was already at the helm and steering the ship over the calm seas. 

"So." Rex started.

"It's just the two of us out here huh? Thought you'd need at least some of your crew to help sail this thing." 

Metalbeard chuckled.

"Aye, usually I'd be havin' me hearty crew with me. But a skilled captain like meself can manage on me own. Or with just a friend to help." He said grinning down at Rex, who turned away and blushed slightly. Being directly called a 'friend' again pulled at his heart in a way he hadn't expected. Metalbeard took note of his reaction and decided to change the subject.

"If I be remembering correctly, ye said ye had a crew of yer own, right?"

Rex perked up.

"Uh, yeah. I have an awesome crew of velociraptors! Well- velociraptors and one young T-Rex that somehow got caught along for the ride. I called her Roberta. I'm not entirely sure how she got on board, but I can only assume it happened when I first used a tennis ball to coax all the raptors on. She must have followed suit, and because she was still just a baby I didn't notice something was up until she started growing bigger than all the others. I must admit, _her_ being a ‘rex, _me_ being a Rex, I think I have a bit of a soft spot for her. Heh-heh. Just don’t tell any of the raptors I said that!”

“Ha-har! Duly noted.” Metalbeard chuckled. 

“Yeah, life on The Rexcelsior can be pretty eventful. There’s monthly skateboard tournaments, training sessions, looking after raptor babies which- while cute- is often the most injuring part of the job.”

“Oh aye?” 

“Yup. Ya see, baby raptors aren’t good at communicating yet, and they like to bite _everything_ they can get their tiny little razor teeth into. So unlike the older ones, you can’t just tell them to not bite you. It’s partly why I wear thick gloves. You’re liable to lose a finger if you don’t!” 

“Hmph. I can imagine.” Metalbeard said, slightly adjusting their course. Rex looked out to the sea, letting the gentle bob of the waves and the quiet rush of water relax him.

“Just two weeks ago two of my raptors, Doc and Clara, had a clutch of two eggs hatch. We decided to call ‘em Jules and Verne. They’re so sweet. You should see ‘em playing together. They constantly fall over each other and whack their little tails into everything. Then when they tucker themselves out, their favourite spot to go to sleep is right in my vest pockets. That’s a habit they picked up from the others. One of my grown raptors Rocky still likes to try doing it, but usually I just end up carrying him around or we fall on the floor and he crushes me. Heh…” 

The enthusiastic smile on Rex’s face faded and he looked down at the deck in deep thought as reality whacked him right in the face.

“But now I’m here in this timeline… Without them… I’m probably never gonna see them again… My crew is… gone."

Metalbeard immediately let go of the wheel and knelt down beside Rex, grabbing his attention.

"Now ye listen tah me Rex, one captain to another… These thoughts will do nothing but haunt ye, if ya let ‘em. And yer too strong ta let ‘em do that.”

Rex look at him with watery eyes and listened as he continued. 

“I know what it’s like ta lose a crew, ta feel responsible, even guilty about it. But ye must try ta remember the good times ye had with them. Remember how ye made them happy, and how they made ye happy too. Because nothing can ever take those times away from ye.”

Rex smiled sadly at him.

“I guess that is true. And at least if they’re still out there, somewhere, in the space-time continuum, I can be happy knowing that they’re ok. They’re all really smart. They can survive pretty much anything. They’ll be fine and happy. Even without me…”

A dark thought threatened to spiral down within him. But instead, he realised something. 

“But, I can be happy too. I’ve got you guys now. Just because they’re happy, doesn’t mean I can’t be happy too.”

Things weren’t like they were before. Everything was different now. He was getting his friends back and connecting with them again. He wasn’t alone like before. And yes, of course he missed his raptors and would love to have them here with him too, but they were safe and he was safe. So maybe moving on wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

“I think that be a wise assessment Rex.” Metalbeard said as he gave Rex a friendly pat on his shoulder.

“So then. How’s about ye take a turn at the helm, _Captain?_ ” He said, standing to his full height and gesturing to the wheel.

“You want _me_ , to captain your ship?”

Metalbeard nodded.

“Aye. Just temporarily mind you.”

Rex smiled and walked over to the wheel, grasping it in his hands. He looked up at Metalbeard who smiled at him before looking out to the horizon.

“She be at yer command Captain. Take her wherever the wind blows ye.”

Rex look on with renewed vigour. Pick a direction and act like he knew where he was going? Now that was something he could do. 

\-----

Lucy and Rex walked side by side down the street, stopping once they were stood outside the gym. They looked around the street and inside the window.

"Looks like Batman isn't here yet Rex. You want me to stay with you while you wait?" Lucy asked. 

Rex shook his head.

"Nah, I'll be fine. He probably won't be long. You go get the… uh." He paused, finding it hard to get the word he wanted out, but he gritted his teeth and pushed through.

" _Dry-cleaning_ and the groceries and stuff. I can wait for him here."

She looked at him sceptically. 

"Ok, if you're sure. See you later alligator."

He smiled warmly at her and all the feelings that old saying brought up.

"In a while, crocodile." He finished. She smiled and waved as she walked off, leaving him alone in front of the gym.

He casually leaned against a lamppost as he waited, glancing a different way down the street about every 10 seconds. He idly rubbed his hands, trying his best not to scratch them despite how itchy the scabs on his knuckles felt. Some of the damage was healed now, but the deeper cuts still had a bit to go and as a result were annoyingly distracting when he didn't have much to do. 

He looked at a nearby clock attached to another lamppost. He'd only been there about 4 minutes.

" _Ugh!_ " He grumbled. 

He really wished he had a phone or a Walkman to listen to some music, or just _something_ to pass the time with. Why'd he have to leave most of his stuff on his ship before the whole ' _Back to the Futuring'_ thing? He'd lost all his cool mix tapes! It would take him ages to make new ones, and he just knew he'd forget a few songs off of them. That was if he could even _find_ some cassette tapes in the first place… Maybe he could ask Benny if he had some? They were probably 'retro' enough for him to have, right?

Another glance at the clock and another 10 minutes had passed. 

_"What was taking him so long?"_ He wondered. 

They were supposed to meet here at 2 o'clock on the dot, but now it was almost 2:20! Where could Batman be?

It was probably nothing. He probably just got stuck in traffic or something! But as he looked at the cars that were passing by fairly infrequently, it looked like things were on a go slow today… But that didn't mean it wasn't busy elsewhere! Yeah, he was probably just stuck in some roadworks on the other side of town. That had to be it. He'd be along any second now.

…

5 more minutes passed.

…

_Aaaaaaaannnnnnnnyyyyyyyy_ second.

…

Another 5. Now it was 2:30. Where the hell was he?

He debated whether he should stay where he was or go wait inside, and decided to stay. He'd already committed so much time out here and sod's law said that the moment he went inside, Batman would probably turn up and be looking for him out here. Although by that logic, maybe he should go inside so he'd turn up quicker. But no, he should just stay where he was. A: he didn't want the people inside to think he was weird or something, and B: he could see further out here and would be able to spot Batman sooner.

The clock ticked past 2:35. 

…

Batman hadn't… _forgotten_ about him? Had he?

No! That was ridiculous! 

He was just running late, that was all. There was no way he'd leave him out here all alone on purpose. _Right?_

But what if he had?

Or what if something bad had happened to him!?

Rex wasn't sure which of those was worse.

His mind began to race, bouncing from one terrible scenario to another, thinking about every possibly about why he hadn't shown up. Maybe he'd gotten in an accident? Maybe he'd gotten confused and thought they were supposed to meet at 3 or something? Maybe he'd decided not to come and hadn't been bothered enough to tell him? Maybe he actually didn't like him and chosen not to come out of spite so he could humiliate him? 

If he wasn't here, then that meant he didn't want to come. He'd left him here, _alone_.

Slowly he heard a quiet whirring noise that started to get louder. But it wasn't coming from any of the shops or passing cars. There was nothing around that could be making it, but he could _hear_ it. It growled louder and louder inside his head until it was the only thing he could hear. The noise sharply roared at him and he covered his ears in a feeble attempt to silence it, but it was no use. The unrelenting, droning, mechanical roar thundered through his head, drowning out the world around him. He recognised the sound then in a horrible instant. It was the sound of the ferocious winds on Undar. The sound he heard the last time he'd been abandoned.

He felt light-headed. His legs felt unsteady underneath him, like the roar in his mind was physically shaking him. He hunkered down in a crouch as held his head tight. His vision darkening as the sound and his thoughts consumed him. 

He was alone again. He'd been forgotten again. Batman was supposed to be here, to come for him, but he _hadn't_ . He was alone. It was happening again. He was trapped. He couldn't move. He couldn't hear anything but that damned sound! He was _alone_ . No one was coming for him. They'd moved on and left him behind again! He couldn't save himself this time! He couldn't be without his friends again, _but he was!_

HE WAS _ALONE!_

"Rex?"

Something touched him. He was snapped out of his thoughts way too quickly. He didn't know what was happening. He lashed out in defence, wildly punching everything in front of him and shouting in shock. His fists collided with something that made a metallic shriek and landed with a crash. He kept flailing until something grabbed onto his arms and started to slow them down.

"Rex! Rex, you're ok bro. It's ok! You're alright!"

The familiar voice cut through his haze. He slowed his fists to a stop and finally noticed Batman stood in front of him. He was firmly but not too tightly holding onto his arms and looking at him with concern.

"...Batman?"

"Yeah, it's me. Do you know where you are Rex?" 

He looked around, then nodded.

"...Yeah. I'm at the gym. I was waiting for you."

Batman slowly lowered Rex's arms and let them go. 

"Good. That's right." He affirmed. Rex took note of his surroundings to confirm it to himself, whilst Batman kept a cautious eye on him. He'd seen a lot in his years of crime fighting. There'd been a lot of people, both villains and victims, who he'd seen had suffered mental trauma. Enough that he could spot the difference between a panic attack and someone who maliciously meant him harm. From the way Rex had been to his confused look now, he obviously fell into the former. Batman did his best to tread carefully and reassure his friend.

Rex glanced over Batman's shoulder and saw that the lamppost he'd been leaning on had been knocked onto the floor. 

"Did I do that?" He asked. 

Batman looked at it, then back a Rex and nodded.

"Yeah. But don't worry about it. I'll pay for it."

"Um. Thanks. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Batman raised a hand and interrupted him.

"No need for an apology bro. I know."

Rex frowned at him, then checked the time on the clock on the other unpunched lamppost. 

"It's like 3pm, _where were you?_ " He asked with a strained voice.

"I'm really sorry to keep you waiting bro. Robin fell over and knocked his head into the corner of a table. Ended up bleeding pretty bad and freaking himself out. He was totally fine after a bit of first aid, but I had to stay and calm him down. I tried to let you know I'd be late, but I didn't have a way to get in touch with you. Came over here as fast as I could. But even so, I'm still sorry."

Rex thought over what he said and nodded. That was a far more reasonable explanation than all the other things he'd thought of. 

"It's ok. I understand."

Batman could tell he was still shaken. But he guessed it made sense. Lucy had told him about the years of isolation Rex had spent on Undar, so it made sense that he would be uncomfortable being left alone. He wondered if there was anything he could do to ease Rex's fears, and after a moment, he had an answer. He searched his utility belt's back pockets until he found what he was looking for. He pulled the thing out and handed it to Rex.

"Here. I want you to have this."

Confused, Rex took the thing and looked down at it. 

"It's one of my back up Bat-phones. But you can keep it. Hopefully it'll help avoid any other communication mishaps in the future."

It was indeed a phone. One that was top of the line, fairly new, and with a thick protective glass screen. Of course it was all black, with an embossed yellow Batman logo stuck on the back. Now he had a way of both keeping in touch with his friends and distracting himself during quiet moments. Rex smiled and looked up at him. 

"Thanks Batman."

The warm feeling of helping his friend made Batman smile back, creating a rather tender moment between the two. But once Batman realised this, he quickly cleared his throat and changed the subject.

"C'mon! Enough mushy stuff. Let's get our workout on! Maybe with enough practice we can get you a totally awesome, nine-pack like mine!"

Batman headed into the gym, and Rex found himself laughing as he put his new phone into his vest pocket and followed Batman inside.

\-----

"So what is this surprise you wanted to show me Luce?" Rex asked as he and Lucy walked side by side through the greener outskirts of the city.

"Well if I told you now, it wouldn't be a surprise! You'll just have to wait and see it when we get there. It's not that much farther. It's right on the outskirts of town."

He smiled at her as she picked up the pace and started lightly jogging, but inside he was a little cautious. He hoped her surprise would be a little less emotionally taxing than the last time a friend took him to a surprise on the outskirts of town. 

Eventually they reached the base of a tall hill and stopped walking.

"Here we are!" Lucy exclaimed. Rex looked up, puzzled.

"A random hill in the middle of nowhere… Awesome(!)" 

She scoffed at his sarcasm.

" _Oh yes,_ of course the hill is what I wanted to show you(!) I just knew you'd appreciate its unique angle(!)"

He snorted at that and shook his head. 

"Ok, ok, Luce. So what's the plan now?"

She smirked playfully at him.

"I need you to close your eyes and not peek until I tell you to."

"Oooh! Mysterious! Heh-ha. Alright, I'll bite." He said, closing his eyes.

"Not a peek 'till you say so."

She smiled and grabbed his ungloved left hand (which was almost healed minus a few light scars) and led him up the hill. He kept his eyes shut tight as they made their way up the steep incline and ended up on the flat surface at the top. He felt Lucy stop and let go of his hand. She stepped around in front of him and paused before exclaiming dramatically.

"Ta-da!"

Opening his eyes, he saw her gesturing with her arms wide open at something behind her. Something that was an unexpected blast from the past.

"What do you think?" She asked excitedly.

He was stunned. What he was seeing shouldn't have been possible, and yet it was.

"You… you rebuilt my little house?"

"Yep!"

He walked up to it, staring at it amazed. The little yellow dream house he'd built so long ago stood before him perfectly intact. It had everything he could remember, from its blue tiled roof right down to the flower planters under the windows.

"I'd almost forgotten what it looked like. How did you remember all these details? You only saw it once." He asked her.

She smiled and shrugged.

"I found your plans for it in the wreckage of the original. I followed them as closely as I could. Although I did add a couple things here and there. You've got a master bedroom, but I also added a couple other bedrooms too, in case you wanted anyone over."

She walked past him, opening the front door and gesturing inside. They slowly walked through the house as Rex took in everything around him. It was fully furnished on the inside. Most of it was styled like he could remember, but there were a few changes too. As they walked through the living room on their way into the kitchen, he saw she'd added a double decker couch. He couldn't help but laugh at the wonderfully ridiculous thing. Even now he still had a soft spot for his first original idea. 

Inside the kitchen, Rex went went over to have a look out the window of the breakfast nook. The view from it was great, he could see a sprawling lush forest go on and on. He could just imagine how nice it would be to veg out here in the morning whilst he woke up and waited for the kettle to boil.

"Hey Rex, I got something for you!"

He turned around and saw her holding out a mug towards him. He took it in his hands and inspected it. It was a black mug that had a light blue velociraptor doing a karate kick on it, that read _'Why should you never fight a dinosaur? You'll get Jurasskicked!'_. He chuckled and shook his head, amazed at such a small, but fun and personal gift that was right up his alley.

"You got me a dinosaur mug? This is awesome!"

"I'm glad you like it. I saw it when I went shopping the other day and just had to get it for you." 

He looked down at her pleased smile and felt his cheeks warm up with a blush as he smiled back at her.

"Thanks Luce."

She fiddled with a long strand of her hair as she glanced away from him.

"You're welcome… Now how about we continue? You can see what I did with some of the rooms."

After putting his mug down on the side he followed her. She gently grabbed his hand and led him out of the room and along the corridors. They poked their heads into the master bedroom, which was coloured dark blue with a light grey carpet, and light blue curtains and bedding on a massive king sized bed. 

"I thought you might like having your own place with a bedroom and a proper bed to sleep on. It'll certainly beat sleeping on a couch in my small apartment! It's just a basis though, so feel free to change or add anything. It is yours now after all."

He had to admit, having a giant bed like that, that he could sprawl out on was a lot more inviting than the small couch he'd been squishing himself onto every night. And then there was the fact that all this was his! Lucy had remade it all, just for him. She'd put in so many little details, so much effort just for a gift for him. It was incredible.

"Thank you. This is… so nice of you. You didn't have to do all this." He said in an unusually soft tone.

"It was no trouble really. It was pretty fun to build. And… I wanted to do something for you."

He was utterly touched by that, with no idea what else he could say. 

This house was truly wonderful. He could be very happy here. It had plenty of space, great views, all the amenities he could need, just, everything! But as he looked at that big bed he imagined himself asleep in it, only taking up about half the space, and realised there was one thing that would be missing. 

"You know it'll be weird living on my own again. I'd kind of gotten used to being roommates with you…I liked it." He confessed. Lucy smiled up at him earnestly.

"I liked it too." She replied.

He averted his gaze from her, thinking for a moment. She'd liked being roommates with him too? Now that gave him an idea. But he couldn't voice it. What if she said no? What if she said yes just because she felt obligated to?! But then again, she wasn't the kind of person to be backed into a corner and fold. She was a fighter. If she didn't want to do something, she wouldn't do it. And if she said no… well he could probably just roll it off. But by the look on her face, something good him she might just say yes.

"Hey Luce. I have a crazy idea…"

"Yeah?"

_Oh_ _boy_ , this was it. Do or die time. 

"Well, you did say your apartment was small… And you made this house with so much space… So you could if, you know, you wanted to…"

He paused. This was the last chance he had to back out. But she was looking right at him, and he'd already gone this far, he had to be tough and follow it through.

"Move in too?" He finished. She blinked, slightly taken aback, but grinned at him.

"Are you sure Rex?"

The light of hope that shone in her eyes gave him renewed confidence.

"Yeah! That way we could still be roommates and stuff."

She beamed at him contently.

"I'd love to Rex."

He laughed. Totally surprised that had worked. They were gonna keep living together! That single thought made him so giddy, his voice rose in pitch and he bounced on the spot.

"Ha! That's great! We could start moving stuff tomorrow!!"

His excitement overtook him, and before he knew what was happening he had picked Lucy up by her waist and lifted her high into the air. He laughed happily and spun around with her in his arms, and she found herself laughing along with him. It was probably the most Emmet-like thing he'd ever done since she'd gotten him back. He had a sweet, joy-filled smile that took her breath away with happiness. When it was over, he lowered her down, still giggling to himself. He opened his eyes and looked into hers, a goofy grin still lingering on his face. But then she saw embarrassment that blossomed into bright red, flushed cheeks as he realised what he'd just done. He tried awkwardly clearing his throat, failing rather miserably at trying to play it cool.

"O-or you know, whenever you want… There's no rush. " He said with a curt cough.

She shook her head. Same old Rex, always trying to look his coolest.

"So Rex, it's getting late. Do you wanna head back to the apartment?"

Instead of immediately saying yes, he thought about it for a moment. 

"Actually, I think I might stay here tonight. Look around and stuff. Maybe try out that big new bed!"

She was a little surprised at that, but found it reasonable that he might want to explore at his own pace and get a good night's sleep on a decent bed. 

"Oh, ok then. See you tomorrow?"

A warm feeling buzzed in his heart as a smile crept onto his face.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed that roller coaster of feels! 
> 
> And thanks to piece_of_resistance for taking the time to look over this big one for me!
> 
> I loved writing so many bits of this chapter. The bit with Unikitty and the bits with Lucy are probably my faves. But I must say, my years of watching Star Trek have finally paid off and given me a lot of knowledge about spaceship mumbo-jumbo. 
> 
> See you again tomorrow for chapter 6, which will even have a drawing or two to go with it!


	6. True Colours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to post this a little later than usual, but I was finishing off one of the pictures I've drawn for this chapter. (You'll be able to find full Res versions of them on my Tumblr https://malisonquill.tumblr.com/ )  
> Hope you enjoy!

Rex stood out on the front porch as he watched Lucy go. He smiled at her and looked out onto the horizon as the sunset bathed the world before him in a golden glow. He lingered there, even after Lucy had long since disappeared from his sight. It really was a perfect spot for the little house; quiet but not too far away from the city, and with sprawling landscapes out every window. It could be a good mix for him, and easily accommodate either his need for solidarity or companionship. Lucy really had thought of everything.

  


He turned back into the house and shut the door behind him. As he made his way down the corridor he ran his hand along the wall, feeling its smooth texture from being newly built. He looked into the rooms as he walked past them, slowly regaining his familiarity with where everything was. Surprisingly, he remembered everything (apart from the few new additions). He remembered planning it, finding enough bricks to build the original and how happy he'd felt when it was finally done. He'd been so proud of it, so happy with how cutesy and nice it'd turned out. He'd put so much detail and effort into the thing, it was no wonder why he'd felt so sad that it'd been destroyed. But here it was again. Lovingly recreated by Lucy, right down to the smallest detail. And not only had she cared enough to do that, but she also wanted to live with him! She hadn't just been letting him live on her couch out of some weird sense of obligation. She actually liked having him around and being roommates with him, despite the fact that it had been very different from before.

It was a real miracle. 

Things were actually going right for him. He almost couldn't believe it. With the help of his friends, he was changing for the better. It was strange to think that only a month or so ago he'd been in the past bringing about Armamagedden. And now here he was, back in his own timeline, with his old friends by his side and finding he could trust them again. No longer was he trying to destroy everything, but instead trying to rebuild what he'd once had in an entirely new way. 

He wandered into a bedroom and came across a big wall mirror that was hung from the top of the wall right to the bottom. He stared at his reflection. For the first time since he'd come back, he took a long, deep look at the man who was standing before him.

He looked at Rex Dangervest standing in the mirror. Or at least, at a man who looked like him. He remembered what had made him into that man. The hate that drove him forward, the want for revenge that had nearly destroyed the world. All those things that had turned him into a bad guy. But that was gone now. There was no deep hatred in his heart, no need for revenge, not after his friends had been so kind and helpful to him. They were here for him now, whenever he was most in need of it. He couldn't hate them now for something that had been out of their control. 

So the man he was looking at wasn't him anymore. At least not entirely. The old Rex Dangervest was becoming a thing of the past. But what would the Rex of the future be?

He looked up at his scraggly mess of hair in the mirror and fiddled with it. He ran his fingers through it as a makeshift comb and then pulled and patted it down. When he was done, it looked a lot neater and very familiar. It looked almost like his old hairstyle, and when he put on a small smile his look was complete. He focused on his face, ignoring the stubble and prominent cheekbones, and he saw a different man. In that moment he was face to face with the man he used to be. He could see Emmet Brickowski looking back at him. 

Somehow, he didn't shy away from or get angry at the person before him like he usually would. He looked at Emmet, and Emmet looked at him with that happy little smile he always had. He used to be so chipper and content. He only dared to dream of simple things, like having more than just a potted plant as the only special person in his life. And somehow, he'd gotten that. He'd gotten more friends than he'd ever thought he'd get. He'd even fallen in love. With someone who loved him back no less! Things were simple back then. Back when he was so innocent and young, it was so much easier to be friends with others. He held his heart on his sleeve and he didn't even know how brave he was to do it. He could connect to others so easily, and even forgive them just as well. By opening his heart to Lord Business he'd been able to save the world, whilst closing it off had nearly resulted in its destruction. If somewhere deep inside him he had the ability to forgive a tyrant who had wanted to freeze the world, then surely he could forgive his friends for not being able to come for him. Maybe that ability for forgiveness had never truly gone away. Maybe it had been hidden, buried deep and forgotten, but now it was reawakened.

Maybe he was becoming a good guy again. 

Maybe he really could be a guy like Emmet again. And yes, while that couldn't erase all those terrible things he'd done as Rex Dangervest, his friends and Lucy had looked past all that. They could see the good in him. Which meant there was still some good there to be seen. He really was doing it, becoming a better person.

He smiled. A big beaming smile that made him look just like Emmet. He found it suited him. That it was something he really liked.

For a brief moment all the years had melted away, and he was sweet Emmet at heart once more. He felt a weight lifted off him in that moment. The pain of his past on Undar and being alone fading slightly. He wasn't alone anymore. He had his friends and a home, and he'd never be near Undar ever again. 

He looked himself in the eye determinedly and pressed his hand to the mirror.

"I am _Emmet Brickowski_ . I am _Rex Dangervest_ . I'm **_both_ ** . And I'm _never_ changing that again!"

He was both. He could be the _best_ of both. He could do it.

He finally had hope that he could move on from everything. He could be redeemed. He had been blind for so long to who he had been, that he hadn't seen there was still a part of it in his heart. He had been a slave to anger and revenge, but now he was free from it all. He'd started to work through the issues that had been weighing him down and holding him back, and whilst he still had a way to go with all that, he'd made progress. He'd dealt with just enough to resurrect a part of him he'd long since locked away. 

He could be the man he used to be. A good man who could open his heart to others. He'd just be a bit different. He'd like different things and act in different ways, but at his core, he could be a good man. A man all his friends, and Lucy, and even himself could be proud of.

He could do it. 

He just had to believe.

And maybe that did sound like a cat poster. 

But it was true.

  


He grinned at his reflection, determined to make a change.

  


\-----

  


The next morning, Lucy came over at around 9am. She knocked on the door, readjusting her hold on the two coffees and bag of pastries she was carrying as she waited outside. After a couple minutes Rex opened the door. 

“Hey Rex! I brought you some croissants over for breakfa…”

Her words faded as soon as she took in what she was seeing. 

Rex stood in front of her, looking very different to what she’d gotten used to. He wore navy blue trousers with silver knee pads, his boots were now bright orange with grey steel-toed caps, and hooked onto his black belt he had some kind of plastic ID card. Instead of a black shirt with torn off sleeves he had a dark blue shirt that matched his trousers, with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows. On his right wrist he had a simple watch and on both his hands he wore thick fingerless gloves. He still had a vest (because there were some things that just never changed) but it was bright safety orange, with a blue and orange ‘R’ emblem that sat over his heart. And then there was his _hair_. It was still long and messy, but it seemed a shade lighter. And the biggest thing had to be the two strands of blue and orange dyed hair in his fringe. As Lucy looked at it, it vividly reminded her of the two highlights she had in her own hair back when it was mostly black.

And his smile. The smile on his still stubbled face was bright, and warm and _happy_. His few wrinkles around his eyes curled up and for once, instead of making him look tired and worn, they made his smile look all the more content and genuine. 

“Woah… What’s all this?” She asked. He shrugged and causally leaned on the door frame.

"Oh you know. Just popped up to the realm of The Man Upstairs to give myself a bit of a makeover."

She spluttered, nearly dropping everything she was holding.

"Wait- Back up! You went _where?!_ To do _what?!_ **_How?!_** "

He gave another shrug, somehow keeping casual and acting like it was no big deal. 

"We'll ever since I learned to move on Undar I can just hop in and out of the realities whenever I want. It's a lot harder to move there and instead of fingers and stuff we got these like, claw hand thingys? Which are a bit of a pain, but it's also a lot quicker changing your look there. You can just swap out parts willy nilly. It's a piece of cake!"

Lucy stared at him dumbfoundedly for a good five seconds before shrugging it off and carrying on.

"Ok, I have _no idea_ how to unpack all that right now. So how about you just tell me why you changed your look instead?"

Rex’s demeanour shifted. It wasn’t nervous or defensive, just more serious.

“Well, you see… I was looking around last night, thinking about everything, when I took a good long look in the mirror and everything just- clicked into place. I’ve already started to change so much in just over a month. I think... I think things might be getting better. I think I might be ok with some things. It’s getting less difficult to do stuff, like trusting you guys, and it’s actually made me… _happy_ . I feel like I know who I wanna be now. I wanna be different to what I was before. Like you said, I don’t have to be either version of who I was, I can be both. And it really hit me yesterday that you were _right_ . I _can_ be the best of both. I can be a good person again!

“I stopped being Emmet Brickowski a long time ago, but I’m not gonna keep being Rex Dangervest anymore either. I…”

He paused, a little nervous, but kept on smiling and continued. 

“I wanna be _Rex Brickowski_. I think that’s a good combo of both and it’s like, symbolic and all that crap. So I just thought, why not have my outside reflect my inside? I mean, that probably sounds dumb but-”

“I think it sounds wonderful Rex.” She interrupted. 

He lost his nervous edge and perked up. 

“Really?”

“Really.” She affirmed. She handed him his coffee and the bag of croissants and smiled as he made an appreciative hum after taking a sip.

“Hmm! What did you put in this?”

“Just coffee, milk, and two sugars. I hope that’s ok.” 

"Heh, coffee.” He said, smiling at the cup in his hands. He Looked back up at her and put on a tough guy frown whilst speaking in a dark, gravelly voice. 

“ _The bitter liquid that provides the only semblance of pleasure left in these dark times._ ” 

He chuckled, his face lighting up again and going back to his somewhat tough, but higher pitched tone. 

“Heh, right? Or I guess this is more like, _the slightly less bitter liquid with a hint of sweetness that provides one of the many pleasures in these peaceful times._ ” They both giggled at Rex’s impression. 

“That was some pretty good brooding. Ha! I can’t believe I used to say stuff like that so seriously.” She said as she moved to sit down on the edge of the front porch. Rex came and sat next to her, putting his coffee to the side and ripping open the bag of pastries. She took a sip of her drink, then smiled at him.

“So then, _Mr Brickowski_ , what do you want to do today?”

He took a big bite out of his croissant, spilling pastry crumbs all over his face and down his shirt. He shrugged but answered her, despite the fact he still had his mouth full.

“Well I thought we could start moving in some small stuff maybe? Then, I dunno, just chill out or something? Unless you have any other ideas.” 

“I think that sounds good. Though, if you were up for it, I do have an idea for something we could do in the evening?”

He tilted his head, intrigued.

“Oh? What’s that?”

  


\-----

  


Later that day, around dusk, Rex and Lucy arrived at the local karaoke bar. All their friends were already there waiting for them in a private room they’d rented out for a couple hours. They all greeted them warmly, commenting on how cool Rex’s new look was and chatting about their days. Everyone was happy to hear that Rex liked the house that Lucy had been working on for him, and they were all even happier to hear that they were going to keep being roommates together. 

Eventually they turned from catching up with each other to actually starting to do some karaoke. 

Metalbeard and Benny started off together with a rendition of Queen’s _Bohemian Rhapsody_ , which was certainly interesting with Metalbeard’s altered lyrics when he changed everything to his ‘Ye Olde’ speak.

During her turn, Unikitty decided to sing some obscure, incredibly upbeat K-Pop song. Which of course, Batman was **_very_** _happy_ _about(!)_ But at least she sang it pretty well. Or at least Rex thought she did, for all he knew she might not be pronouncing any of the words right. But that didn’t matter because she was having fun, and so was he. 

Rex had to admit he’d been a little sceptical when Lucy had suggested the idea of karaoke to him, but now he was glad he’d gone along with it. It was pretty fun cheering on his friends as they sang. Everything was in good fun too, and they were all very supportive of each other. When someone forgot a line or missed a cue, they just cheered each other on and encouraged one another. Sometimes when someone hit a particularly sour note they laughed, but it was always laughing _with_ the person, never _at_ them. There was no pressure to be good, just have fun.

After a while it was Rex and Lucy’s turn. She thought it’d be best they start by singing together so Rex could get used to the whole thing before he had a go on his own. The only problem was they were having trouble deciding on what song they should do.

  


“How about you two do Everything is Awesome? Wyldstyle is pretty good at it!” Benny suggested.

Lucy shrugged.

“Sure, I don’t mind doing that if Rex wants to.” 

“Woah, wait a minute. Luce, you willingly _want_ to sing Everything is Awesome? I know a little while ago you said you didn’t mind it anymore, but now you actively want to sing it? And even before that, you knew all the words! I just- I’m really confused.”

Unikitty gasped dramatically.

“Wait, Wyldstye, you haven’t _told_ him!”

Rex looked between them, confused. 

“Told me what?”

“Oh yeah, I haven’t, have I? I guess it must have slipped my mind.”

He stared at her intently. 

“Luce, what haven’t you told me?”

She took the remote from Benny and turned her attention to the screen.

“Here. Maybe I should show you.”

She flicked through the catalogue of songs, finding a collection of different versions of Everything is Awesome. She looked through and found the one she was looking for. When she clicked on it, it brought up a preview image of the album cover. Rex looked at it. It seemed identical to all the other versions he remembered seeing. It had all the members of _A Popular Band_ on it, but there was once noticeable difference. One of the members looked just like...

“Wait, is that…?”

She nodded encouragingly. He looked back at the picture, analysing it and processing what he just heard. Unfortunately his brain did not seem to want to cooperate, and it froze in confusion like an old overloaded computer.

“ _Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat???_ ”

The others couldn’t help but laugh at him as his confused ‘what’ just kept going on and on. When his breath finally ran out, he just sat there and dumbfoundedly stared at the screen for a moment. Batman waved a hand in front of his face but Rex just stayed frozen with that dumb look on his face.

“Good going Wyldstyle, I think you broke him.”

She chuckled and changed seats to sit next to him. She grabbed one of his hands and squeezed it tight, finally getting his attention and bringing him out of his brain-fart. Instinctively, he squeezed her hand back.

“Soooooo… _You_ sang Everything is Awesome?”

“Yup. I used to be a pop-star. I sang in the band before I became a master builder and joined the resistance. That’s why I know the song. I even used to love it. And yeah, it’s taken a while but I’m warming up to it again.”

“So you weren’t always a cool, goth, rebel, huh?”

“Nope. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but I tried to put that part of myself behind me. I didn’t want anyone to know. It took us joining with the Systarians to make me realise that maybe acknowledging and taking on some aspects of who I was, wasn’t such a bad thing. You know?”

He smiled at her lovingly.

“I think I do.”

To the side of them, Batman scoffed.

“So you guys gonna pick the song or what? I don’t want us to run out of time before we can get to me. I got a killer song that’s gonna bring down the house!”

“Alright, alright, we’ll go with the song.” Rex retorted. He and Lucy got up and each picked up a mic.

“Though it might be a bit unfair me having to sing with a literal pop-star.”

“ _Former_ pop-star. And besides, this is about _fun_ , not how good you are. Though that being said, I am _totally_ gonna wipe the floor with you.” She said with a smirk on her face. He mischievously grinned back at her.

“Oh yeah? I’d like to see you try!”

“Guys this isn’t a competition.” Benny interjected. Rex laughed at him with enthusiasm. 

“Not with that attitude! C’mon, let’s do this! Hit it Batman!”

The instrumental started and it was quickly Lucy’s turn to sing. She sang the first verse with perfect pitch and timing. Rex had forgotten just how good a singer she actually was. Hearing those old lyrics he used to have ingrained into his mind made a wave of nostalgia flow through him. Old memories of singing in the car on his way to work were brought to the forefront of his mind, and he found the words came rather easily to him. No one had been entirely sure what to expect his singing voice to be like, but it turned out Rex was surprisingly competent. Maybe he didn’t quite blow people away like Lucy did, but he could unarguably carry a tune and keep fairly in time. When they started harmonising at the lines ‘ _side by side, you and I, gonna win together_ ’, everyone else cheered and applauded. As they sang the chorus they began to sway and bob their heads to the beat. The further the song went on, the more in sync they got, seamlessly switching lines between each other. They even started dancing a little towards the end. 

Rex was particularly good at the more rap-like sections. He excitedly belted out the line ‘ _a very old vest!_ ’ as he pointed to his own vest, and the others laughed with him. But when the song came to a close and he and Lucy sang the last few lines together, they looked deep into each others eyes. Lucy saw the joy and happiness inside Rex and it warmed her heart and made her happy beyond measure. Rex could see the fondness she still had for him and it made him feel all fuzzy and giddy, and like he could be together with her in this moment forever. 

They harmonised together perfectly as they sung the final line.

“ _Everything is awesoooommmmeee, when you’re living out a dream._ ”

Everyone clapped and cheered for them as they continued to stare at each other warmly. 

Rex had all his friends around him, supporting him and having fun with him. He was well on his way down the long journey of trusting them again. Now when he thought of them, they made him happy. He had his Lucy back, and he was never going to lose her or any of the others ever again. He’d never hoped to have all this again, but he did. He _was_ living out his dream.

And now, everything was _awesome_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw, Rex is finally finding happiness in his new life. He's finally getting the happy ending he deserves!
> 
> Also fun fact, I was inspired by the song "The Man I Used To Be" from the Count of Monte Cristo musical ( https://youtu.be/wkDzwJk8WuQ ) when I was writing the start of this chapter. In fact if you listen to it and then reread the start of this, you'll notice I snuck in some of the lyrics and themes. I thought it really suited Rex's realisation and coming to terms with himself. 
> 
> See you tomorrow for the final chapter!


	7. Everything Is... Awesome?

Rex walked up to the counter at Coffee Unchained and gave a small smile to Larry the Barista.

"Two coffees please. One black, and one with just a _touch_ of cream and 25 sugars."

Larry raised an eyebrow at him as he typed the order into the cash register. Rex just shrugged nonchalantly at him.

"Eh. What can I say? Old habits, amirite?"

As he waited, he started mindlessly humming a catchy pop song and admiring a cow skull that was hanging on the wall which (for some strange reason) had a pink flower crown on it. Then when the drinks were done a few minutes later, he popped the cash on the counter and thanked Larry.

He made his way outside and stood next to his new bright green skateboard that he’d left propped up against the bike rack. Briefly, he put the two coffees next to it and pulled out a Walkman from his vest pocket. He popped it open and pulled out the cassette tape that was black and red, with a handwritten sticker that read ‘ _Everything Is Awesome Mix: Vol 1_ ’. He flipped the tape around to side B and slotted it back into place. With his other hand he slipped on his wireless headphones. He hit play on the Walkman and put it back into his pocket. As he picked up the coffees again, he heard the tape whir as it locked into place and started up. Loud electric guitars and drums blared in his ears as the intro to the rock remix of ‘Everything is Awesome’ started playing. He smiled and started bobbing his head to the beat, kicking down his skateboard and setting it level using his foot. He did a quick check for any pedestrians that could potentially bump into him, but found his way was clear. Hopping up onto his skateboard he kicked off and started gliding down the street.

He weaved in and out of the people in his path, smiling and nodding at anyone who acknowledged him. He took a sip of his seriously, sickeningly sweet coffee and found it tasted _so good_. He would have hated to think how many calories were in the thing. But he didn’t really care, not today. No, today he just wanted to let go, relax and do whatever the hell he felt like. Why? Simply because he could.

He jumped off the curb with a kick-flip and rode into the quiet road. A small amount of coffee spurted out the small holes in the tops of the cups, but luckily Rex’s balance minimised any spillage. Moving both cups so he could hold them in one arm, he skated over to the back of a passing pick-up truck and grabbed onto the back of it. Happily he coasted along behind it, bobbing his head to the tune of the next song that started playing. The guy driving the pick-up looked at him very confused in the rearview mirror, but he just smiled and nodded at him. 

After a while the truck started going in a different direction. So Rex let go and glided off back towards his home. 

  


Once he was back at his and Lucy's little yellow house, he left his skateboard in the hallway and made his way towards the back of the house. He turned off his Walkman and left it with his headphones on the living room table. Then he walked out the back door and onto the porch, where Lucy was sat on the bottom of their double decker porch swing. She was looking out to the horizon, the gold morning sun lighting up her face and making it almost seem like she was glowing. It was a sight Rex would never get tired of seeing. He hid the coffees behind his back and walked over to her.

" _Gooooood_ morning Luce! Doing a little brooding? Or are you just adding to your secret bird watching journal?" He snarkily asked.

She turned to him after being brought out of her thoughts, laughing and waving a hand at him.

" _Rex!_ "

He smiled, acting as innocent as possible, yet with a charming, underlying cheekiness.

"What? I'm not one to judge! I myself saw a rare dark-plumed Bat-dad flying with a Robin on my way to the coffee shop this morning."

She shook her head and laughed. That wonderful sound made him smile even more.

"And speaking of coffee…" He said, finally pulling out the cups from behind his back. She beamed at him as he handed her a cup. 

"Thanks Rex. And what are you having today?"

As she started to drink, Rex carefully sat down next to her on the swing.

"Just a coffee with a bit of cream and waaaaaayyyyy too much sugar."

"Really? And how does that fit into that oh so strict diet you're always on about?"

He took a sip of his drink and shrugged.

"Eh. It's a cheat day. Thought I'd treat myself a little. No harm in a little splurge every now and then, right?"

"I don't see why not."

They sat quietly as they sipped at their drinks. Rex finished the rest of his and set it to the side. Then, Lucy put her own drink into one of the cup holders before looking at Rex.

"You know, it was very sweet of you to go all the way to town to get us coffee. You didn't have to do that."

He blushed at her a little.

"No. But I wanted to. I know how much you like it and I just wanted to do something nice for you."

She found herself enamoured by him and the surprising, simple ways his sweeter side continued to emerge.

"Thank you Rex, for everything."

He gazed at her warmly. Then, hesitantly, he put an arm around her and gently squeezed her in a hug. She reciprocated tenfold, putting both her arms around him and hugging him tightly. It surprised him, making him stiffen for the briefest moment, but then he relaxed. Slowly he wrapped his other arm around her and squeezed her just as tight. His chin rested on top of her soft blue and pink hair. Her face nuzzled against his warm chest. They stayed that way for a while, both of them utterly content in the other's arms. They were so close. Closer than they'd been with each other in so long. It felt old and familiar as well as entirely new, all at once. And more than that, it felt _right_. Nothing fit more perfectly in either of their arms than the other. 

Maybe there was still a spark of love between them that could rekindle the relationship they once had. 

  


Eventually they parted. But instead of distancing themselves, they scooted closer together. Rex rested an arm over her shoulder as she leaned into his side. Together they gently swayed with the breeze and gazed at the landscape around them.

Rex took in everything around him and smiled. His mind wandered, thinking about other realities and alternate timelines. He thought about how things had turned out for him and wondered what timeline might have had the best outcome. But as he looked at Lucy's content face as she leaned against him on their silly little double decker porch swing, in their cute little house, he found that he was happier than he could ever have hoped to be.

And Rex knew, this was it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End.
> 
> Or more accurately, the end of the beginning.
> 
> EDIT: This chapter now has a piece of fanart by the ever amazing, Piece-of-resistance!!! Who also was kind enough to beta most of this story :D You're too amazing!! Find the art posted here on Tumblr ->  
> https://piece-of-resistance.tumblr.com/post/186532486445/i-drew-this-for-malisonquill-s-amazing-fanfic
> 
> Some fun facts about this chapter, the skateboarding was inspired by the video game DLC where Rex shows off skateboarding to his raptors. Then there's the Back to the Future and Guardians of the Galaxy references too. Though I must say I wasn't sure how much to explain the Walkman. I was growing up at the end of video and cassette tapes' popularity, so I'm familiar with them. But hopefully it made sense to anyone younger who isn't so familiar with them.  
> Also the very last line is the same as the very first line of the story, just with a different meaning :P
> 
> So you may be wondering "Is this it? Is this the last we'll see of Rex Brickowski?"  
> And the answer to that is no. I have fallen in love with this guy too much to stop here. I have many more ideas for him that I want to write out and explore. 
> 
> This might be the end of Rebuild, the end of the story I set out to write about Rex 'rebuilding' himself up again, and rebuilding his relationships and trust for his friends. But there's still more left to do. 
> 
> So Rex and friends will return in the sequel, Rekindle and Rebuild: Side Stories. 
> 
> Rebuild: Side Stories will be some one shots set during this story, but that didn't quite fit with the flow of things. Like moments I wanted to do but couldn't really fit in. Or maybe alternate versions of things for fun.
> 
> Rekindle will take place directly after this, and be mostly focused on Rex and Lucy's relationship, but will also have other things, like Rex meeting Queen Watevra and stuff. It won't be structured exactly like this story was. It'll be more like a connected collection of one shots with an over arcing story, but I think you'll all like it. Gotta have a pay off to the Dangerstyle stuff I was teasing all throughout this story! :P It will also probably still have a Teen rating like this one did too.
> 
> So if you have any suggestions of stuff you might want to see then let me know! I might end up writing about it! :3
> 
> Though with that being said, I'm not sure when that'll come out. I spent like 4 weeks non-stop writing this story and kinda buggered my hands a bit, so I'll take a short break to rest and recover. Can you believe I actually intended for this to be a short story? How the hell did it end up at nearly 30,000 words? I have no idea, but I'm glad it did. I'm really happy with it :D
> 
> But that being said, I have already started on some bits for Rekindle and planned out some things so, hopefully you won't have too long a wait. But if you want to make sure you don't miss anything, be sure to subscribe to this series to be notified when stuff comes out. I'll also probably post stuff, including some doodles to my tumblr too. 
> 
> Oh! And if anyone wants to make anything based off this, like a drawing or a fic or anything, then please feel free to do so! I'd love to see it :D
> 
> Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go enjoy a break and go build the Rexcelsior I just got :3


End file.
